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I 



HEADING FOR VICTORY 
OR 

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 



HEADING FOR VICTORY 

OR 

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

Marden l/ 


By 

Orison Swett 


“In America the instances in which men have 
risen from the most humble beginnings to the 
most fabulous destinies, are more striking and 
more numerous than anywhere else. 

“ ‘Everybody Ahead’ is the national motto. 
The universal ideal of the American people 
seems to be success.” 

—DR. MAX NORDAU. 


New York 

FRANK E. MORRISON 
Publisher 
1920 



Copyright, 1916 


By ORISON SWETT MARDEN 

Copyright in the British Empire and in the 
signatory to the Berlin Convention 

Copyright, 1920 

By ORISON SWETT MARDEN 




All rights reserved 


a 0 ~ 



© Cl. A 5 974 74 V '\ 




To every soul resolved not to make a daub out 
of the life which the Creator intended for a 
masterpiece. 

O those who are determined to make their 



A lives count; who are not satisfied with a 
cheap success, and who will never cease striving 
until they have lifted themselves up to the level 
of their highest gift, this book is dedicated. 

It is dedicated to all who believe that a lowly 
beginning is no bar to a grand career, and that 
there is no chance, destiny or fate that can thwart 
a determined soul ; to all who believe that there is a 
better life aim than dollar-chasing, and that every- 
body ought to be happier than the happiest now are. 

“Heading for Victory’’ is also dedicated to the 
men who have won out, — the John Wanamakers, 
the Charles M. Schwabs, the Judge Lindseys, the 
Edwin Markhams, the Hudson Maxims, the 
Luther Burbanks, the hundreds of other success- 
ful men in the various occupations and professions 
who have testified to the inspiration and help they 
have received from the Marden Books; and to the 


v 


thousands who thank the author for giving them 
the first glimpse of possibilities which they did 
not before realize they possessed, and the dis- 
covery of which proved turning points in their 
careers. 

This book is dedicated to every man and woman 
who is determined to make a worthy contribution 
to the world; to make it a little better, a little 
cleaner, a little deccnter place to live in. 

Orison Swett Marden 


vi 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Training for Masterfulness or Backing up 

the Brain i 

How to Measure Your Ability .... 24 

Until a Better Man Comes Along ... 44 

Foundation of Success 53 

Timidity and Sensitiveness — H ow to Over- 
come 73 

To Be Great, Concentrate 104 

Make To-day a Red Letter Day . . . . 116 

Can You Finance Yourself? 136 

Are You an Original or a Duplicate . . 160 

The Quality which Opens all Doors — 

Courtesy 174 

Why Can’t I do it? 199 

You Can But Will You? 216 

How to Talk Well — A Tremendous Asset . 229 

Are You a Good Advertisement of Yourself? 250 
Put Your Best into Everything .... 263 

The Man with Initiative 277 

The Climbing Habit 289 

Enthusiasm, the Miracle Worker . . . 299 

Choose a Life Motto 310 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Keep Sweet 324 

Courage and Self-Faith — How to Cultivate 

Them 344 

The Will that Finds a Way 360 

Taking Habit into Partnership .... 376 

How Much Can You*Stand? or, Your Giv- 
ing Up Point 398 

Honesty, the Cornerstone of Character . 414 

Worry, the Success Killer — How to Cure . 431 

Success as a Tonic 446 

Will it Pay to go to College — If so, Where? 459 

Brevity and Directness 487 

What Other People Think of You and 

Your Career 498 

When Discouraged — What To Do . 508 

Think of Yourself as You Long To Be . 523 


TRAINING FOR MASTERFUL- 
NESS OR BACKING UP 
THE BRAIN 


With rare exceptions, the great prizes of life fall to those 
of stalwart, robust physique. 

Nature demands that man be ever at the top of his con- 
dition. He who violates her laws must pay the penalty 
though he sit upon a throne. 

Many a man pays for his success with a slice of his con- 
stitution. 

Pile luxury high as you will, health is best. 

Julia Ward Howe. 

If a weak, devitalized, feeble body doesn’t respond to the 
ambition, even genius and the greatest industry cannot ac- 
complish much. 

I have only one counsel for you — Be Master. 

Napoleon. 

W ELL might Emerson exclaim, “Give me 
health and the day and I shall make the 
pomp of emperors look ridiculous!” 

The foundation of all success and of all happi- 
ness lies in robust health. Health means confi- 
dence, assurance; it means hope; it means cour- 
age; it means faith in one’s self and faith in others. 
Health means virility, forcefulness, masterfulness. 
It means larger opportunity, greater possibilities. 
Health means initiative, efficiency, success, happi- 
ness. In short, everything we live for is so de- 
[ i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

pendent upon good health that it becomes our first 
duty to keep ourselves in a superb physical con- 
dition. 

Keeping physically fit to do the greatest thing 
we are capable of doing is the first great success 
commandment. 

It is not enough to be free from pain or dis- 
tressing symptoms of any kind. The health that 
counts is superb health, vigorous robust health, 
health which radiates force, buoyancy, virility, 
vim, initiative, magnetism. It is the sort of health 
which gives sparkle to the eye, elasticity to the 
step; the health which sharpens the wits and puts 
iron in the blood and lime in the backbone, sun- 
shine into the disposition. It is the bubbling over 
quality of health which counts. This is what gives 
sprightliness to youth and joy and gladness to life. 

What else is so grand as to stand on life’s 
threshold, fresh, young, hopeful, with a conscious- 
ness of power equal to any emergency — a master 
of any situation? The glory of a young man is his 
strength. 

How the world of our dreams changes the mo- 
ment we are indisposed or feel ill ! How quickly 
our bright pictures grow dull and a film obscures 
our ideals! Our ambition oozes out; discourage- 
ment overshadows the whole life. When the 
vitality drops, all the mental faculties are sick, too, 
and put on mourning. The whole life is in 
shadows. 


[ 2 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Oh, to be strong, to feel the thrill of life In 
every nerve and fiber in middle life and old age as 
in youth ; to exult in mere existence as boys do when 
they are gliding over fields of ice in the crisp and 
bracing air of winter! 

This superabundance of life, more than you 
think you shall ever need, is a reservoir which is 
to last eighty or a hundred years; and when you 
are fifty or sixty and life comes to its greatest in- 
terest, scope, usefulness, and activity, then you will 
not admit, however temperate and disciplined you 
have been, that you have one ounce too much of 
vitality of body or brain for what lies before you 
and which your whole soul longs to attain. 

We are not superbly equipped for our life work 
unless we keep ourselves in this superb condition. 
It is the surplus in the bank, the reserve capital 
that counts in hard times, in financial straits. It 
is this little surplus that so often saves business 
men from failure, in emergencies. It is the health 
surplus, the reserve in the physical bank, that pro- 
tects us from bodily bankruptcy in times of great 
mental stress, physical strain in great emergencies. 

When visiting the shipyards on the Clyde I was 
intensely interested in watching a huge machine 
which punched holes through great thick plates of 
steel and iron. The steel fingers of the machine 
would push their way through the solid steel plates 
as quietly and easily as a cook pushes her fingers 
through a piece of soft dough. There was not a 
[ 3 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


quiver or a shake in any part of the machinery. 
The secret of this quiet energy was the enormous 
reserve, the great momentum, stored in a huge 
balance wheel. In this lay the power which 
was behind the apparent miracle wrought by the 
steel fingers. It is a large physical reserve which 
enables a human being to do great things with 
apparent ease, to go through great crises, to meet 
sudden emergencies easily without straining or 
striving. 

A superb personality plays a tremendous part 
in a successful career, and there is no one thing 
which will improve one’s personality so much as 
surplus health. 

Personal magnetism, which is such a great fac- 
tor in success, is largely physical. It depends to a 
great extent upon physical reserves. Magnetism 
cannot be forced. It is a radiation of conscious 
power. The better the health, the greater the 
magnetic attraction of the man or the woman. 

“No man is in good health,” said Thomas 
Wentworth Higginson, “who cannot stand in the 
free air of heaven, with his feet on God’s free 
turf and thank his Creator for the simple luxury 
of physical existence.” This is the sort of abound- 
ing health which makes one forceful, radiant, mag- 
netic, full of joy, life, power. 

To start out on an active career without putting 
one’s self in a superb physical condition would be 
like trying to use a great electric power plant with 
[ 4 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


most of the dynamos out of commission through 
short circuits, burn outs, etc. 

Who can ever estimate the terrible suffering 
from thwarted ambition, from dwarfed lives, 
dwarfed achievements, from genius being forced 
to do the work of mediocrity, to say nothing of 
the discomfort and pain, which have resulted from 
poor health, from depleted vitality! 

“There is no kind of an achievement equal to 
perfect health. What to it are nuggets or mil- 
lions!” cried Carlyle, whose own life was made 
wretched and career dwarfed by ill health. 

Think of a man with Carlyle’s brain being the 
victim of a dyspeptic stomach! Notwithstanding 
his great mental output, think of the tremendous 
loss of brain power, nerve energy, and the irrita- 
tion and suffering caused this man, largely from 
the lack of knowledge of how to take care of him- 
self, how to live ! 

When some one was congratulating Mrs. Car- 
lyle on the work of her famous husband, she said : 
“But think, man, what he would have done, if he 
had had' a digestion !” 

Health is the first wealth. There is nothing 
which pays a human being so well, which so mul- 
tiplies his power, as to keep in robust, vigorous 
health. 

When the blood is pure through eating pure 
food scientifically prepared, through right living 
habits and right thinking, we are in little danger 

[ 5 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


from the multitude of health enemies that might 
otherwise attack us. 

The amount and quality of our blood depends 
almost entirely on our food. The Napoleonic 
maxim, “An army moves on its stomach,” is as 
true of the individual as of an army. 

We know how going without food, even for a 
day or two, unless we are used to fasting, cuts down 
one’s physical vigor and also the vigor of the 
mental faculties. The brain gets an immense 
amount of credit which really should go to the 
stomach. 

Physical vigor is the basis of mental power. It 
is not always the better brain, but the better-nour- 
ished brain , the best backed-up brain, that achieves 
the most. 

The brain can not give out anything which is 
not passed up to it from the blood, and the purity 
of the blood depends not only upon the right kind 
of food, but upon right life habits, pure air and 
sunlight, healthful recreation, plenty of play, joy, 
gladness, and harmony of life. 

The brain, courage, confidence and determina- 
tion are not supported by poor, thin, vitiated 
blood. When the vitality of the brain is depleted 
there is nothing to back up the faculties or to but- 
tress the .ambition. They all drop to correspond 
with the vitality of the brain, which is only equal 
to that of the rest of the body. 

While it is impossible to develop intelligence 

[ 6 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


directly by upbuilding the body, yet physical vigor 
arouses, and makes keener and sharper all of the 
mental faculties, so that if you keep your body in 
a superb condition your brain will also be in a 
superb condition, capable of doing the maximum 
of its greatest and best possible work. In other 
words, the better animal you are, the more intelli- 
gent, the greater achiever you will be. 

Theodore Roosevelt is a remarkable example 
of what the harmonious cooperation of body 
and brain can accomplish. Mr. Roosevelt knows 
perfectly well that the basis of all achievement is 
a robust physique, enduring vitality. He knew 
this at the start, and, when a delicate youth, he 
diligently and systematically applied himself to the 
upbuilding of a vigorous body. This is the secret 
of his marvelous force, his tireless energy, his 
many and varied accomplishments. 

There are numerous instances to show that a 
nursed weakness will often outlast an abused 
strength. I know people who were born deli- 
cate, who, because of inherited weakness, have 
been forced to take such good care of themselves, 
to be so systematic and careful in their living 
habits, that they have lived much longer and 
accomplished a great deal more than many of their 
friends and associates, who had such vigorous 
health at the start that they actually abused it 
because they thought they could stand almost any- 
thing. Later, they found, to their cost, that the 
[ 7 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

spendthrift of health is the worst, the most foolish 
and reckless, of all spendthrifts. 

Although most of our college students are a 
healthy, athletic loti of young fellows, it is pathetic 
to see the tremendous efforts made by some of 
them, who neglect college sports in order to give 
more time to study. While grinding for higher 
marks, for higher rank, these cadaverous, devital- 
ized students sap their bodies to feed their brains. 
They do not take half enough exercise; they get 
little play or fun in their college life, and worse 
still, they do not eat enough, and what they do 
eat often is not the right kind of food. The result 
of this is frequently a physical breakdown. 

Whatever lessens physical strength or injures 
the health, sooner or later enfeebles the mind and 
makes for inefficiency. A large part of the poor 
work of the world is done because people do not 
keep themselves in a fit condition to do superb 
work. No one can do the best of which he is capa- 
ble unless he feels fit, and the kind and quality of 
his food, his manner of partaking of it, his habits, 
regularity of exercise, of recreation, of sleep, his 
mental habits, all these things have a tremendous 
influence upon his health. 

It takes a giant to do a giant’s work. No mat- 
ter how able your brain, if you don’t make the 
stomach, the lungs, and the other bodily organs its 
allies, if you don’t back up your brain in every pos- 
sible way, you won’t get the results you desire. 

[ 8 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Many people to-day are getting second-class results 
from first-class brains , because they are not backed 
up by good health , a strong physique . 

Everywhere we see men and women with splen- 
did natural ability, fine brains, doing inferior 
work; their one hundred per cent, ability is pro- 
ducing only fifty per cent, results on account of 
low vitality, poor health. 

Most of the prizes of life fall to the strong, the 
physically vigorous, the men and women who back 
their brains with capacious lung power and fine 
physical stamina. Nothing else can take the place 
of these success factors. Breeding cannot, talent 
cannot, education cannot. Weakness of any kind 
cripples you, puts you at a great disadvantage. It 
will appear in everything you do. You cannot 
disguise it; you will fall as far below your highest 
possible success as you fall below the health line. 
Physical weaklings do not make good leaders, 
good executives, and as a rule they must march in 
the ranks of mediocrity. In short, it is an inexor- 
able law of life that the weakest shall go to the 
wall. Nature has no use for weaklings. With 
her it is the survival of the fittest. She tramples 
under foot the physically unfit, the weak and infirm. 
Frailness of body is inevitably handicapped in life. 
Physical weakness always discounts the possibili- 
ties of achievement. 

Tackling the great game of life with a weak, 
depleted body, a low vitality, and indifferent 
[ 9 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

health habits, Is about as sensible as It would be to 
try to win a prize in an athletic contest by entering 
in an unfit condition — half fed, tired out, 
exhausted, and without proper training. If anyone 
were to suggest competing under such conditions 
you would say, of course, “Why, there is no chance 
of success for one so terribly handicapped.” 

How can you expect to win in the great game 
of life, in competition with giants, if your vitality 
is low, or if your nerve cells are poisoned with 
alcohol, or impaired by any kind of dissipation, 
any vicious life habits? If you want to win the 
grand prizes of life you must enter the race every 
day in a superb condition, with every faculty 
intact, with all your reserve ready to back you in 
any emergency that may arise. You can’t do this 
if your blood is vitiated, weakened by poor food 
or by any form of dissipation. 

The power of every success asset is multiplied 
by every bit of improvement or increase in physical 
health, because robust health means the intensifi- 
cation and strengthening of all the mental facul- 
ties. 

Will-power itself is largely a matter of perfect 
digestion. The very edge of your ambition lives 
in your blood. Your ambition is sharp, your ideals 
clean cut, if you are in good condition, but if your 
blood is devitalized by wrong living, your brain 
will be weak, your brain product will be stale and 
lacking in vitality and virility. 

[ ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Courage has a physical basis. A large part of 
grit is really physical stamina. Rebuffs, failures, 
disappointments, which only stimulate us when 
health abounds, terrify us when our bodily stand- 
ards are down, when we are physically depleted, 

There will come discouragements, disappoint- 
ments, and failures even in the best lived lives ; and 
what we do under fire, under discouragement after 
failure, will depend upon how much courage we 
have left, how much grit there remains in us, or, to 
put it in other words, it will depend on how much 
iron there is in our blood, how much lime there is 
in our backbone. 

Your success in rising above failures and disap- 
pointments, in overcoming obstacles, depends very 
largely upon your physical reserves, your plus- 
vitality. It is not enough to be merely well. You 
must have abounding health; you must have suffi- 
cient reserve power stored in your physical bank 
to carry you safely through the critical places, the 
emergencies, which will confront you all through 
your career. 

I once heard a great surgeon say, as he stood by 
a patient on the operating table, about to per- 
form a delicate operation, that he feared the oper- 
ation would prove fatal because the patient’s 
habits and manner of living had been such that he 
had no reserve vitality to meet the demand about 
to be made on him. The man, of about fifty, he 
said, had so exhausted his physical force that he 

[ ix ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

probably would not have sufficient powers of 
resistance to carry him over the crisis, to enable 
him to rally from the shock of the operation. The 
patient died in two days. 

Life insurance is an important thing, but it is 
infinitely better to insure yourself against the 
thousand and one health emergencies, against dis- 
appointments and financial crises, by keeping the 
physical reserves up just as high as possible. 

There is a tremendous difference between plus 
faculties and minus faculties, and health or lack of 
it makes a large part of this difference. 

Obstacles which we could overcome easily when 
vigorously robust we hesitate to attack when we 
are physically weak. What seem like molehills to 
a man in vigorous health become mountains when 
his vitality is low. He shrinks before them, is 
cowed, because his physical standards are down. 
He cannot cope with his difficulties, because a dis- 
couraged soul in a depleted played-out body is in 
no condition to tackle a problem, an obstacle of 
any kind, or to bring success out of a failure. 

Initiative, like courage, to which it is so closely 
related, is largely physical. Men and women with 
strong, vigorous initiative are usually strong and 
vigorous physically. They have confidence in 
themselves, which is at the root of initiative. They 
have a hopeful outlook upon life. They are not 
filled with the doubts and fears which dog the steps 
of the weak and discouraged. 

[ 12 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


What we are capable of accomplishing depends 
very largely upon what we think of ourselves, upon 
the estimate we put on our ability. When the 
physical thermometer is low, when the health needs 
bracing, courage and self-confidence wane, doubts 
arise, and ghosts of all sorts, worry, fear, and 
anxiety haunt us. These are the ghosts that para- 
lyze initiative and cripple our efforts. Fear, the 
great human foe, is a child of a lowered, depleted 
vitality. 

A good percentage of the joy of living, of 
enthusiasm in our undertakings is physical. How 
much more enthusiastic we are when we feel 
strong, robust, than when tired and run down. 

Optimism itself is half physical; pessimism and 
low vitality go together. When one is perfectly 
normal physically, he is an optimist; when one is 
not normal he is often a pessimist. 

“I can,” means physical vigor; “I can’t,” means 
physical debility. 

How many times have you wished, longed for 
more ability, the signal ability which you have seen 
others display? How many times have you 
regarded your possibilities as limited because you 
felt you were deficient in some important faculty? 
Perhaps you have made desperate efforts to build 
up some one quality or faculty which is weak, 
like your initiative, your courage, your stick- 
to-it-ive-ness, or some other, yet with very 
little success. You probably never connected the 

1 13 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

poor results you obtained with your physical 
condition. 

Now, as a matter of fact, your success or failure 
depends in the first place on this. You can not 
only strengthen your deficient faculties, but you can 
also multiply and improve immeasurably all of 
your other mental faculties by just improving your 
health. 

Here is where your power lies; here is the secret 
of your success, your destiny. I know of no such 
effective way of multiplying one’s brain power, 
increasing one’s efficiency and general ability as by 
the bracing up of the health, improving the physi- 
cal condition. 

How shall you do this? First of all by making 
sure that you are eating the kind and quantity of 
food that makes good pure blood. Our life out- 
put, our happiness, our success are all dependent 
upon the quality of the blood. The blood feeds 
every thought that passes through the brain, visits 
every one of the billions of cells of the body, which 
are dependent on it for sustenance. 

If some chemist magician were to give you a 
prescription for a life elixir, a magic chemical mix- 
ture that would revolutionize your life, cure your 
ills, turn all your disappointments and failures into 
successes, that would increase your brain power 
wonderfully, double your efficiency and effective- 
ness and insure your happiness, wouldn’t you be 
extremely careful in seeing that the prescription 

1 14 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


was properly filled? Would you take a gamble 
upon what meant so much to you by going to a 
cheap, unreliable drug store to get the elixir pre- 
pared? Would you take the chances of getting 
adulterated or defective materials, thus ruining the 
effectiveness of the elixir? Of course you wouldn’t. 
No one would be so foolish. No matter what the 
cost, you would select the purest chemicals that 
could be produced in the world. You would take 
no risk, run no chances, in the preparation of this 
marvel-working elixir. 

Yet here is a real life elixir, your blood, in 
which lives all your possibilities, your future, your 
happiness, your destiny, and you seem quite indif- 
ferent as to the ingredients which go to make it. 
Everything, your life itself, depends upon its qual- 
ity, and yet you are perhaps one of those who take 
without question all sorts of food material in cheap 
restaurants; who buy materials for the mixing of 
this magic elixir, in which all your future, your 
destiny, lives, from cheap provision dealers; who 
eat meats which may be diseased, vegetables and 
fruits which are soft and spongy and beginning 
to decay, poor quality of bread, stale eggs, and 
who drink adulterated coffee and tea, and milk 
which is full of germs. 

Few people back up their brain, their ability 
with the right food, material which will make pure 
blood and build up a vigorous body, nourish a 
strong brain. They do not eat regularly, and they 

t *5 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 


eat too much or too little. They take practically 
no exercise or recreation; they look upon play, all 
indoor games, and outdoor sports as waste of time, 
and then wonder why they don’t feel well, and why 
they don’t get on faster. 

Now, if you are going to do big things you must 
take enough nourishing food to feed body and 
brain, — plenty of pure milk and fresh eggs, good 
cereals, bread and butter, vegetables and fruit in 
abundance, and, if you are not a vegetarian, meat 
of good quality in moderation. 

You must not over-eat or under-eat, and you 
must eat regularly. Your recreation, your play and 
exercise, must be in line with your amibition. Your 
sleeping habits must back up your eating and exer- 
cising, and you must never omit the daily bath, — 
the best you can get wherever you happen to be. 

In short, if you expect to make the most of your- 
self, to draw out and utilize every bit of your pos- 
sible ability, you must give yourself the same pains- 
taking and scientific treatment you would give a 
valuable speed horse, which you were training to 
make a world record. If you are ambitious to 
make the work of your brain count, you must neg- 
lect nothing that will make you a first-class animal. 
Even the manner of partaking of food, whether 
bolting or properly masticating it, whether taking 
it with a cheerful mental attitude or the reverse, 
makes a tremendous difference in the quality of 
the blood. 


[ 16 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Everything you do, every particle of your 
energy, your thinking must be expended scientifi- 
cally for brain and body building, for creative, 
productive results. For instance, you may eat the 
most scientific food, all of your physical habits 
may be calculated to forward your great life aim, 
and yet your thought habits may paralyze your 
efficiency and neutralize your success. Your 
thoughts, your expectations, your faith must all 
be in line with your ambition, or your possibilities 
will be reduced. 

Proper food for the mind, the right sort of 
mental exercise and training, is as essential to 
health as proper food for the body, the right sort 
of physical exercise and training. 

To get the best results from physical culture 
exercises it is absolutely necessary that the mind 
work in harmony with the body. It is perfectly 
possible to project tone and vigor into your muscu- 
lar system, making it strong and robust, merely 
by thought. In the same way, by the power of 
thought, you can project flabbiness, weakness, into 
your muscular system. 

If you want health, you must believe in the pos- 
sibility of your health, you must expect it; you 
must believe that you were made to be healthy and 
robust. You must flood your mind with the truth 
that the very principle of vital health is in you 
because, being made in the image of your Creator, 
you must partake of His perfection. You must 
[ 17 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


always hold the thought that your Father meant 
you to be a whole man or woman, perfect physi- 
cally and mentally, and not a weak, puny, diseased 
individual. 

Instead of visualizing and asserting health, how 
many people do just the opposite ! They constantly 
talk and think of their poor health, look as though 
they felt and believed they never would be well. 
They take it for granted they must always be 
slaves of poor health; that they were cursed at 
birth with the sins, the weaknesses and disease ten- 
dencies of their ancestors. 

No matter how perfect their physical surround- 
ings or how scientifically they treat their bodies, 
these people will never be healthy until they change 
their thought. 

How long would it take a poor youth to become 
prosperous if he were always thinking about pov- 
erty and picturing poverty-stricken conditions, vis- 
ualizing himself in a poverty community, sur- 
rounded by poverty, and not daring to aspire to a 
fuller life? The chances are he never would be 
prosperous, because a mind that is saturated with 
the poverty idea is forever attracting correspond- 
ing conditions. Any one who desires material suc- 
cess must clear his vision of everything that savors 
of poverty, everything that suggests it. He must 
think opulence, talk opulence, believe in, expect, 
opulence. He must also make his personal ap- 
pearance, his bearing, his manner, and, as far as 

[ 18 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


possible, his clothing, correspond with his ambi* 
tion. 

It is the same with the health. There is every- 
thing in creating an atmosphere of hope, of health 
expectation, in radiating optimism, constantly af- 
firming the conviction that health is an ever- 
lasting fact, that disease and weakness are only the 
absence of the reality. If you expect to be well you 
must keep the divine pattern in your mind. If 
you would bring it out in your life you must keep 
your mind on your model, just as the sculptor 
keeps his mind on the model while he is trying to 
bring his ideal out of the marble. 

The habit of always holding a high ideal of 
our health, of visualizing ourselves as always well 
and strong, goes far in building up a barrier be- 
tween us and all our physical enemies. People 
who do not thus fortify themselves mentally are 
very easy victims of possible disease conditions. 
Those who never think of themselves as whole, 
and strong, who constantly picture themselves as 
weak, ailing, with little disease-resisting power, are 
liable to succumb to any epidemic that may happen 
along. 

The building up of a strong health-thought bar- 
rier, a health conviction, is the best sort of life 
insurance. 

Children should be trained to resist disease. 
They should be reared with the idea that the mind 
is the body’s natural protector, and that rightly 
[ 19 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

used it will form a strong barrier between them 
and physical weakness and disease of all kinds. 

Instead of this, most children are reared with 
the opposite idea. They are constantly reminded 
of all sorts of health enemies; cautioned about 
getting their feet wet, about getting in a draught, 
or exposing themselves in any way ; they are 
warned against different articles of food that they 
are assured will hurt them, and against all sorts of 
health enemies from within and without. In short, 
they are encouraged in developing weakling ten- 
dencies. 

While taking all necessary care of their bodies, 
if the conviction were firmly established in their 
young minds that they were intended to be strong 
and well and vigorous; that God’s children were 
never meant to be weaklings, the victims of dis- 
ease, unhappiness, or misery of any kind, this 
very conviction would be a splendid protection 
against the ills of their physical and mental well- 
being. 

There is that within man which is a protection 
against all disease germs, — his divine inheritance. 

All mental cures of disease are based upon the 
arousing of the energies, the powerful health po- 
tencies that are inside of us, the awakening of the 
latent curative forces in the great within of our- 
selves. The Creator did not leave human beings 
at the mercy of the accidental discovery of some 
drug, some chemical, a remedy obtained from 
[ 20 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


the bark of a tree which grows only in South 
America, or in some other remote part of the 
world. 

Take, for example, quinine, obtained from the 
bark of the cinchona tree, which grows in the 
Andes Mountains of South America. Multitudes 
of malarial victims on the opposite side of the 
globe might die without ever knowing of the exis- 
tence of this tree. Is it reasonable to think that 
millions of people must suffer tortures with ma- 
larial maladies just because they never happened 
to hear of this remedy? The Creator never put 
a human being’s destiny at the mercy of an inert 
drug, at the mercy of something to be taken out of 
a bottle or in a pill. The great healing principle 
is in ourselves. We do not have to hunt over the 
earth for it. It is not in the bark of a tree; it is 
not in some mineral. The power that cures all 
disease and all maladies resides inside of every 
human being. The creative, restorative, renew- 
ing, rejuvenating principle, the God principle is in 
every one of us. 

As long as we take proper care of our bodies, 
and are in perfect harmony with the great Spirit of 
the universe, the Source of all health and of all 
good, disease cannot get hold of us, cannot gen- 
erate in us. Our God-consciousness makes us im- 
mune. It is only when we neglect or abuse the 
physical part of ourselves, or when we get out of 
tune with the Infinite, out of harmony with the 
[ 21 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

divine principle within us, that all sorts of discord 
are liable to develop. 

The secret of all our strength, both physical 
and mental, lies in our conscious oneness with our 
divine Source, — our weakness, our helplessness in 
our feeling of separateness from this Source. 

The consciousness of our oneness with the One, 
of our vital connection with Omnipotence, gives 
us a wonderful confidence in ourselves ; fills us with 
a tremendous buttressing, sustaining power. We 
feel the thrill of this creative power or force 
through every cell in our bodies. It gives us a 
sense of safety, and an assurance of health, of 
success and happiness which nothing else can 
give. 

This divine force is constantly flowing through 
every cell of our body, and is our especial help in 
time of need. At the instant any accident happens 
to us, — a wound, the breaking of a bone, or any 
physical hurt, this great God force goes instantly 
to the spot to repair the damage, to restore, renew, 
to make good. 

The secret of masterfulness and health is to 
establish a consciousness of our union with God, 
and persistently to hold the ideal of perfect health 
in the mind until the word (the thought) is made 
flesh, until the ideal is outpictured, is realized in 
the body. 

The same victorious attitude which we hold 
toward our health we should hold toward every- 
[ 22 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


thing in life. Confidence, assurance, expectation 
of all good, are very vital forces. 

It is a wonderful help to carry the victorious 
attitude toward everything in life; the victorious 
attitude toward our work, the victorious attitude 
toward people, toward our environment, toward 
obstacles, toward our ambitions. Approaching all 
our problems, tasks, however small, with the vic- 
torious attitude, with the assurance of victory 
greatly increases our confidence and our achieve- 
ment force. 

Above all the victorious attitude toward our- 
selves, our health, our conviction that we are going 
to be well, vigorous, and able to carry out our 
great life aim, to make our contribution to the 
world, in the spirit of masterfulness will have 
everything to do with getting the most out of life, 
and making a worth while career. 

Man does not live by bread alone. He is a very 
complex creature, and it takes a great variety of 
food to nourish his threefold nature, — physical, 
mental, and spiritual. He cannot attain his maxi- 
mum of power and creative force unless the food 
is right, the living is right, the habits are right, 
the thought is right, and the work is right. When 
these conditions are fulfilled, when body and mind 
are properly fed and exercised, then we get a real 
man, a superb human specimen, a being capable of 
sublime achievement. 


[ 23 ] 


HOW TO MEASURE 
YOUR ABILITY 


“One for all— all for one— 

The boat is the one: 

The man is nothing. 

The boat is everything.” 

This is the slogan of the Cornell University boat team. 
The men repeat it until the words become ingrained in the 
very structure of their brain. Trainer Courtney, who in his 
training of Cornell crews, has given a most remarkable ex- 
ample of the possibilities of team work, insists that every 
man under him must bury any personal ambition to be stroke 
oarsman. 

F ROM the first, each man in the university 
boat team is made to understand that his 
independent effort, no matter how extraor- 
dinary, does not count, that every position on the 
crew is just as good, just as dignified and just as 
honorable as any other. It must be “all for one,” 
and that one, the boat. The whole aim is to pre- 
vent the individualizing of effort and to make 
every man do his best to help every other man to 
do his best. “When the boat wins we win,” is 
their constant thought. 

The human brain may be compared to a boat 
crew. Its maximum power comes from the com- 
bined efforts of all the faculties in team work. 
To get the best results each faculty must be trained 

[ 24 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


with equal care and thoroughness, for the good of 
all. None must be favored to the neglect or injury 
of another. 

For more than a quarter of a century Mr. 
Courtney’s method of training has enabled Cornell 
to win a very large majority of university boat 
races, both in the four-oar and eight-oar contests 
for freshmen and ’Varsity crews. This method, 
applied to brain training, will bring success in the 
life race. 

To develop the possibilities of the most com- 
plex of all the Creator’s handiwork — the brain of 
man — is a most difficult and delicate task. 

Its forty-two different faculties are like the 
wheels in a watch. If symmetrically developed 
and properly coordinated, they keep perfect mental 
time, but if any one is over-developed or under- 
developed, there is trouble similar to that which 
would be caused by putting a wheel designed for 
a small watch in a large one. Of course this would 
throw the watch out of harmony and it could not 
keep correct time. 

Where any one mental faculty is out of tune 
with all the others the mind cannot express perfect 
harmony or power, and the person is a victim of his 
defective faculty. 

A symmetrical brain, that is, a brain in which 
all of the faculties are so developed as to produce 
the greatest possible harmony and efficiency, is the 
effective brain. If one faculty is developed out of 
[ 25 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


proportion to the others, no matter if it amounts 
to genius in some particular line, the brain as a 
whole is not as effective, because there is no poise, 
no balance of mental power. This does not mean 
that a specially strong talent or faculty should not 
be cultivated to its utmost possibility, but simply 
that in doing this other faculties should not be 
overlooked. 

Because of the ignorance of many parents and 
teachers of the laws of psychology, the mental 
effectiveness of thousands of children is seriously 
impaired, and often ruined, by the over-encourage- 
ment and over-stimulation of some particularly 
strong and brilliant qualities, while others are 
neglected because they are weak and deficient. 
The result is, the brain as a whole is thrown out 
of balance. The child grows up with a lop-sided 
mentality, and suffers, perhaps all its after life, 
from the results of injudicious training. 

The tendency to encourage brilliancy in any 
particular direction and to neglect weakness and 
dullness is natural, but to follow the tendency, 
whether in regard to ourselves or our children, is 
fatal to symmetrical development and efficiency. 
This applies not merely to the purely mental, but 
in equal, perhaps even greater, degree to the moral 
qualities. 

Many children, for instance, are deficient in 
mathematics. The mathematical, the constructive 
powers are weak; they require constant encourage- 
[ 26 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ment and stimulation by exercise and by suggestion 
until they become stronger. If these weak links 
are neglected they will seriously mar the strength 
of the whole mental chain. A chain is only as 
strong as its weakest link. But a weakness or de- 
ficiency in any moral quality, courage, for exam- 
ple, will prove infinitely more harmful than a 
weakness in mathematical, or in constructive 
ability. 

The education of the future will have reference 
to the normal development of every moral and 
spiritual, as well as of every physical and mental, 
faculty and quality. To-day our educational sys- 
tems bring into play a certain number of physical 
and mental faculties, and leave the others almost 
wholly untouched. The result is that the average 
college graduate has some superbly developed 
qualities while others are just where they were 
when he entered college, or wherever they may 
have drifted, for lack of use, during the years 
spent in going through his academic course. Be- 
fore a boy begins to fit for college, for instance, 
before he shuts himself away from the practical 
world to prepare for life, he may be comparatively 
strong in self-reliance, in initiative, will-power, etc. 
His college studies, however, made little, if any, 
demand on these splendid qualities and so they 
really go backward when they should be brought 
forward toward the goal of personal power. 

The aim of all education from kindergarten to 

1 27 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

university should be the formation of a symmet- 
rical brain, a well-rounded, well-balanced, well- 
poised mind. The child should be watched from 
the start, studied carefully, with a view to encour- 
age and develop its weaker faculties and to re- 
strain, if need be, rather than to stimulate any 
faculty, such as self-will, that happens to be abnor- 
mally strong and out of proportion to the balanc- 
ing faculties. 

Strengthening weak qualities may have much 
more to do with success and happiness in manhood 
and womanhood than any other feature of a child’s 
training. There are thousands of people in the 
great army of failures to-day who, but for some 
little defect or weakness, some undeveloped por- 
tion of the brain or some faculty which happened 
to be deficient, might have made a great success 
of life. If their parents or teachers had helped 
them to correct these defects, or if they had only 
known themselves in later years how to strengthen 
the particular weakness which handicapped them, 
how to build up that defective portion of their 
brain so that their minds would have been more 
symmetrical, how different their career might have 
been! 

The trouble with most of us in measuring our- 
selves up or guaging our possibilities is that we 
seem to think our ability is something which is born 
in us, ready made, something all ready for use 
which we cannot very materially change. We 
[ 28 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


look on it as some one whole, complete, fixed thing. 
As a matter of fact, it is made up of a number of 
different faculties and qualities; and these separate 
parts or strands form the cable which we call 
ability. If the cable is weak, if it won’t stand the 
strain of life, one should go to work to strengthen 
it, just as an engineer would go to work to 
strengthen the cable which supports a suspension 
bridge that is in danger of collapsing. The engi- 
neer finds the weak strands, and by strengthening 
these makes the cable so solid that it will be more 
than equal to any strain put upon it. He gives it a 
reserve of strength that will enable it, if need be, 
to stand extra strain. 

You should go to work in a scientific way to find 
your weak strands, and then concentrate on these, 
strengthen, build up, each one that is defective, 
and twist them all into one mighty cable that will 
enable you not only to achieve your ambition and 
to bring out every latent power, but also make you 
so strong and poised that you will have sufficient 
reserve to stand up against all the jars and jolts, all 
the unforeseen accidents of life. 

First of all, make a chart of the various facul- 
ties which enter into the making of a first-class 
man, an all-round successful life. To begin with, 
good, sound judgment is the basis of all success in 
life. No matter how brilliant or how talented you 
may be in certain lines, if you do not have good 
sense, if your judgment isn’t sound, your talents 

[ 29 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


are always in jeopardy. On every hand we see 
men of brilliant parts, who make strenuous efforts 
to succeed, but who before very long go to pieces 
because they are not level-headed; their judgment 
is not sound. They leave all sorts of loopholes in 
their plans which invite disaster, whereas level- 
headed men, men with good judgment, protect the 
results of their efforts as they go along. They 
are not all the time breaking out and doing foolish 
things which neutralize the work of years, perhaps, 
as is so often true of men of one-sided or uneven 
strength. 

Are you deficient in this quality of level-headed- 
ness, on which so much depends, while some other 
is strong enough to take care of itself? For ex- 
ample, your ambition may rank ninety, on a scale 
of a hundred. You may have a tremendous en- 
thusiasm and zest, an overwhelming desire to get 
on. Now that quality ranks so high you will not 
need to give it any special attention. You may 
rank up pretty near a hundred in many other quali- 
ties, — in industry, in persistence, hang-dog stick- 
to-it-ive-ness, in concentration, etc. You may not 
have a lazy drop of blood in you and yet you are 
falling way below what you know you ought to be. 
Go down the whole line, rating yourself according 
to your strength or weakness, and see if you can’t 
find out where the trouble is. 

Over-cautiousness, timidity, for example, which 
could very easily be corrected in youth, is respon- 
[ 30 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

sible, perhaps, for more mediocre lives than any 
other character defect. It is one of the most com- 
mon weaknesses of New England people. Cau- 
tiousness is ingrained in the New England charac- 
ter. Youths are continually warned to be careful, 
to play for safety, not to take great chances with 
anything. The result is, there are a great many 
New Englanders of superb ability, men capable of 
doing great things, who are plodding along in 
mediocrity, getting a very ordinary living. If 
these same men had been reared in the Western 
spirit, inoculated in youth with some of the daring 
and courage of Western business enterprise, they 
would have been men of large achievement and 
of great influence. 

I know a number of such over-cautious charac- 
ters, men of exceptional ability, who in middle life 
are working for a comparatively small salary. 
They never dared to branch out for themselves, 
because the risk, in their judgment, seemed too 
great. They are afraid of taking chances. 

What a pity to see so many human beings ac- 
complish but a fraction of what they are capable 
of doing just because some little part; of their 
brain is either over or under developed! 

It is not only in encouraging and strengthening 
the “weak qualities,” but also in curbing and re- 
pressing the ultra strong ones that we must shape 
and mold our intellects. For instance, some of us 
may have too much self-confidence, so that we “rush 
[ 3i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

in where angels fear to tread.” On the other hand, 
we may have too little, and fear to undertake en- 
terprises which, if boldly handled, would have 
yielded fortune and fame. 

It is not easy to determine whether too little or 
too much of this admirable quality works most 
harm to the possessor. If, on the one hand, your 
confidence is abnormally developed, out of all pro- 
portion to your ability to make good what you 
undertake, you will always be in trouble, because 
you will be plunging continually into things which 
you cannot carry out successfully. On the other 
hand, if your confidence in yourself is not normal 
you may be too timid to undertake even the things 
which you know yourself to be capable of accom- 
plishing.' You may ignore opportunity when it 
raps at your door. 

Phrenology, though not a perfect science, may 
often render help to those who are perplexed as 
to which faculties need strengthening and which 
need curbing in their particular case. If one’s 
brain is not symmetrical, if some portions are 
strong and others weak, and the whole mentality 
is thus thrown out of gear, he can remedy his de- 
fects and coordinate his powers when he knows 
just which faculties and qualities he must 
strengthen and which he must hold in check. 

All of the faculties so interlock, are so closely 
related that they are really interdependent. It is 
impossible to isolate one and develop it without 
[ 32 } 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


reference to the others. Though classified under 
one head each faculty is usually made up of a num- 
ber of related qualities. A well-poised caution, for 
example, is made up of prudence, fine discretion, 
carefulness, watchfulness, circumspection. A per- 
son who is not discreet, careful, watchful, is not 
cautious, is not prudent. 

Again, prudence and discretion cannot be sepa- 
rated from tact. A person who is tactless will 
hardly be prudent, careful, or cautious. 

Courage, like self-confidence, could not be de- 
veloped without affecting the other qualities which 
enter into its composition. Self-confidence and 
courage are interdependent. One could not have 
confidence without courage, and vice versa. 

Victims of chronic fear or of excessive timidity 
and caution are not balanced mentally, because 
they are not symmetrically developed. Some fac- 
ulties are over-developed and others under-de- 
veloped. Cautiousness is so over-developed that 
it neutralizes self-confidence and self-faith, hope. 
These people are afraid to undertake anything out 
of the usual routine. They usually go through life 
suffering tortures from fear and dread of the un- 
known. They have a perpetual feeling that some 
misfortune is going to happen to them; they can- 
not enjoy the present because of their gloomy fore- 
bodings of the future. 

It often happens that one poor player on a base- 
ball team, even when all the others are up to stan- 
[ 33 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

dard, will cause the loss of a game, and when 
a game is lost it is lost, not alone for the poor 
player, for the man who made the blunder, but for 
the whole team. 

It is just the same in life. If the mental team 
as a whole is not up to standard, there will be 
trouble, if not failure. 

Take away self-confidence, for instance, which is 
the leader, and the whole team may collapse. 
Some of the faculties will not move unless there is 
confidence and courage, and whatever kills these 
will bring failure or very seriously affect the 
achievement. Or if hope is small, the other facul- 
ties will not give out their maximum of efficiency. 
Hope and courage are leaders in the mental realm. 
If these are weak or ebbing, the other facul- 
ties lag behind and do poor work, even when sup- 
ported by the will. 

Wherever there is one-sided development, a 
lack of mental poise, there is always trouble some- 
where. Mental harmony produces physical har- 
mony and vice versa. If every brain were sym- 
metrically developed it is doubtful if we should 
ever be sick, unhappy, or unsuccessful. 

Even those of us who are called educated and 
cultured are fearfully dwarfed in some sides of our 
nature because we have not had proper nourish- 
ment. It takes a large, well-rounded bill of fare 
to nourish the whole being, both physical and 
spiritual. 


[ 34 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


If a child does not get food which builds cer- 
tain tissues, or gets only a small amount of it, there 
will be corresponding weaknesses in his body. If 
he does not get sufficient lime, or bone-building ma- 
terial, even though he may have a super-abundance 
of food that builds up other tissues, his skeleton 
will be defective, and the child may have ricketts. 
He may not even be able to hold his head up be- 
cause of the lack of lime in his backbone. In fact, 
owing to this lack of bone-building material, all his 
bones will be deficient. If he does not get suffi- 
cient brain food, nerve food, muscle food, he will 
have a defective brain, defective muscles and 
nerves. 

In a similar way, if a child is deprived of cer- 
tain intellectual and spiritual food which builds up 
the moral faculties, when he reaches maturity he 
will be correspondingly deficient. If Reason is a 
little, narrow, weak thing, inadequate and unde- 
veloped, the man will run into all sorts of snags. 
If Veneration is small, the man will have no regard 
for sacred things, and will be likely to develop a 
tendency to profanity. If Destructiveness is active 
— then the man will become pugnacious and war- 
like. If Justice is lacking he will have no sense of 
the rights of others, and will trample on their 
prerogatives. Should Calculation be largely de- 
veloped, the man will be a statistician and, prob- 
ably, lacking in imagination; he will be cold, 
methodical, unemotional. Again, if Tact happens 
[ 35 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

to be a Lilliputian, the individual will always be in 
hot water. If Selfishness is very robust and ath- 
letic, some of the other faculties will suffer seri- 
ously. If Animalism is so large that the man is 
coarse, then the energy which should go to the 
brain goes to the flesh, the passions. 

On every side, we see people who are painfully 
deficient in the social qualities. These were never 
developed in youth, or those people may have lived 
by themselves so much, secluded themselves so 
completely from their kind, that their social facul- 
ties have atrophied. How often we meet educated 
people who cannot carry on an interesting, intelli- 
gent conversation for five minutes! How many 
men and women of splendid ability in other direc- 
tions are handicapped by a lack of initiative ! How 
many otherwise able people are kept in the back- 
ground because of extreme shyness or sensitiveness 
which makes them tongue-tied and awkward in the 
presence of others! 

A man may be college educated and yet be a 
social dwarf ; or he may be a dwarf in his practical 
faculties which have never been developed. Or a 
man may be an intellectual giant and a moral 
dwarf. Some of the world’s greatest geniuses 
have been seriously lacking in some sides of their 
nature. Full-roundedness, symmetry of develop- 
ment, an all-round education of the whole man is 
extremely rare. 

Everywhere we see people who are ambitious 

1 36 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and who work hard, but who, greatly to their mor- 
tification, fail to make good. There is some lack 
in their make-up, some screw loose in their men- 
tality, some little defect, some invisible thread, not 
noticed very much in childhood, perhaps, which 
now holds them back. 

I have talked with many of these people, and 
they do not seem to know why they do not get on. 
They are honest, sincere, eager to make the 
most of themselves, yet because of some little 
thing, some mental defect which could long ago 
have been corrected had they known about it, they 
do not get on. 

If you could have seen yourself as you really 
were, faults and all; if you could have measured 
yourself up at the very outset of your career as 
others saw and measured you, you could have 
saved yourself many humiliating experiences and 
bitter defeats in the past. You would not have 
stumbled and fumbled and blundered as you have, 
because your mistakes have been caused by weak- 
nesses which you did not even know you had, or if 
you did know, you never dreamed of their becom- 
ing so serious later on as to prove handicaps to 
your dearest ambition. 

In order to make the most of our assets we need 
the aid of every faculty and function of our being. 
No matter how handicapped you may be, you are 
the controller of your own forces, and you may 
make them friends to push you along or enemies 
[ 37 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


to drag you back. You are the captain of your 
mental team and your individual faculties, and the 
way you train them, the way you command your 
team, the way you play the great life game, will 
determine whether you shall be a success or a 
failure. 

Your progress, of course, will depend almost 
wholly on your faithfulness to your task. For in- 
stance, if you conscientiously exercise your weak 
points and try to keep them up to standard to-day, 
and neglect them to-morrow, to-day’s efforts will 
be lost, and they will drop down to the level of 
yesterday. 

Few of us are willing to pay the price of excel- 
lence, but if we expect to continue growing we 
must keep right after ourselves. We are too easy 
with ourselves. We coddle and pity ourselves too 
much, and find all sorts of excuses for our failure 
to get on. We blame everything but the right 
thing. The trouble is in ourselves. “It is not in 
our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.” 
It is too much trouble to brace up our weak points. 
Some of us do not like to admit them even to our- 
selves. It is so much pleasanter and so much 
easier to work on the strong links in our chain. 
Our pride is in these, and we like to dwell on them, 
to make the most of them, and to ignore the others. 
But if we are not honest with ourselves, if we 
haven’t enough enterprise, energy, and determina- 
tion to rise above the things which down the weak 
[ 38 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and trip up the unworthy, of course we must take 
the consequences. There is only one price for real 
success — honest work in building ourselves along 
right physical and mental lines. 

If you are not doing more than fifty per cent, of 
what, everything considered, you know you ought 
to do, have a good heart-to-heart talk with that 
other self, the real but invisible you inside the visi- 
ble man, something after this fashion: 

“Now, John, we have come to a crisis in our 
career. Here I find the years flying by with no 
adequate return for my efforts. I am not accom- 
plishing one-half of what I can and ought to ac- 
complish. I can’t afford to go on in this mediocre, 
half and half way until I strike the inevitable years 
of diminishing returns. If I am ever to make a 
success of life I haven’t a day to spare, for I have 
already lost precious years which should have 
borne better fruit. Something tells me that I can 
do infinitely better than I have done so far. Every 
time I see someone else with no greater ability, no 
more favorable opportunity, doing better than I 
have yet done; every time I read of any one doing 
the thing that I have so long dreamed of doing, 
the interrogation leaps into my mind ‘Why can’t 
I do it?’ Now I not only know that I can, but I 
know I shall do it. I am master of myself — mind 
and body must do my bidding. All my faculties 
must obey me in making my life the success my 
Creator meant it to be.” 

[ 39 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


Now, after some such earnest talk with yourself 
get paper and pencil, and go over your personal 
chart once more. Analyze yourself again and 
again, studying closely each one of the faculties 
which are called into play in every big manly suc- 
cess, and see whether you are conscientiously and 
persistently doing your best to strengthen those 
which you have found to be weak, and to restrain 
those which are naturally too strong. 

The things which brought the first gleam of 
hope to Columbus’s discouraged, mutinous crew 
was the discovery of bits of dry wood, branches of 
trees, and plants floating on the water. This was 
a sign that land was not very far away, and the 
men took new heart and pressed on to the great 
unknown continent still hidden from their sight. 

Now, there are certain signs in our lives that 
indicate possible undiscovered continents of ability 
and of power in the great within of ourselves. 
These signs, if rightly understood and followed, 
will keep us always on a voyage of self-discovery. 

If you are dead-in-earnest; if you feel a great 
ambition welling up in you which has not yet been 
satisfied ; if you have a passion for growth, for self- 
improvement; if you yearn for a larger life, you 
may be sure that that larger life is possible to 
you, that there is something bigger in you than 
you have yet discovered. 

On the other hand, if you are listless, ambition- 
less, if work to you is drudgery, if life does not 
[ 40 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


seem to you the grandest boon ever bestowed on 
mortal, if you do not feel an unspeakable delight 
and satisfaction in being alive, if you are not grate- 
ful for the chance to make good in such a magnifi- 
cent world, then you are not likely to do anything 
larger than you have already done. 

We all have a prophetic faculty which points the 
way to what is in store for us, gives us an inkling 
of the nature of the undiscovered territory within 
us. Unless we wilfully close our minds to the 
truth, we cannot mistake the signs. A divine hun- 
ger for growth is a sure sign that there is some- 
thing larger in you. It is the vision of the future 
which you have not yet been able to make real. 

The mere conviction that you have a vast 
amount of unused ability, the consciousness of pos- 
sessing possibilities which have not yet become 
realities, will mean everything to you. It will 
prove an irresistible stimulus to your advancement 
because, as Phillips Brooks said, no man can be 
content to go on living a half life when he has dis- 
covered that a larger, fuller, completer life is pos- 
sible. 

If there is anything that should make a tremen- 
dous call upon our efforts it is the backing up of 
our only chance in this world, in fact the only 
chance we know anything about. We may know 
nothing about what is coming to us in the next life, 
but we do know that a great opportunity confronts 
us here and now, at the very outset of our career 
[ 41 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

— a chance to make good, just as the acorn makes 
good by becoming a magnificent oak. We are 
ushered into this world of marvelous possibilities 
and beauties, with ability to match our chance. 
We are given all of the tools necessary to develop 
this ability, to equip ourselves superbly for our 
work, the work that was born with us. 

Each one of us has been assigned an important 
part in the great drama of life, a part which no 
one else can play, and which will make or mar the 
success of the whole according to whether we make 
it a bungle or a masterpiece. We have our chance 
to play a noble part, and we shall be judged by the 
use we make of it. On this will depend our fur- 
ther advancement. The questions that will be 
asked each actor at the close of this life drama 
are: “What have you to show as a result of your 
opportunities? What message did your life work 
leave behind you ? What did it mean to the world, 
to your fellow-men? What did it mean to you? 
Did you look upon it as an opportunity to make 
the grandest possible man of yourself? What did 
you do with the talents you had? Did you wrap 
them in a napkin and bury them, or did you put 
them out to interest? 

“You were sent to the world, which contains 
the cumulative force and the facilities of thousands 
of years of civilization, the inventions and discov- 
eries of millions of people who preceded you. 
They lifted civilization up to where you found it. 

[ 42 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


What did it mean to you ? Did you push it along 
a little further? Did you appreciate all you owed 
to those who had gone before you, all that they 
had done in making your life so much easier and 
pleasanter than theirs had been; in passing up to 
you all the accumulated expertness and facility they 
had gained in struggling with hard conditions so 
that you could do your work so much better and 
with so much less labor and strain?” 

It seems unbelievable that any human being 
would fail to back up his chance with all the force 
and resources he possesses, and yet most people do 
not look at this magnificent life chance as anything 
very remarkable. In fact, multitudes look upon it 
very indifferently, look upon life as a sort of a bore, 
living getting as drudgery, when it is really the 
only means of developing a man, of calling out a 
superb character. 

The task set us is big enough and great enough 
to call out every resource of a man, physical, spirit- 
ual, and mental, to measure up to it. When 
we see all about us many men who were ambitious 
to make good, whose whole careers have been 
wrecked by some miserable little weakness, some 
yellow streak or loose screw somewhere in their 
make-up, it certainly behooves us to remedy these 
things in ourselves. It behooves us to make our 
foundations so broad and deep, our preparation so 
thorough, and our defenses against failure so im- 
pregnable that there will be no possibility of de- 
feat in the great work before us. 

[ 43 3 


UNTIL A BETTER MAN 
COMES ALONG 

All the world cries: “We want a man.” Don’t look so 
far for this man. You have him right at hand — it is you, 
it is I, it is each one of us. — Dumas. 

Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men. 

Lowell. 

“ X HAVE two hundred millions in my coffers, 

I but I would give them all for Marshal Ney !” 
exclaimed Napoleon in a great emergency. 
The Corsican conqueror wanted a man — and this 
has been the great cry, since the world began, 
“Give us a man ” 

The scarcest thing in the world is a real man. 
The hardest thing to find is a fully developed 
human being, a man who has delved down into 
himself and brought out and cultivated his high- 
est possibilities, a man with concentrated energy, 
a man who has a definite purpose and knows how 
to fling his life out to it with all the weight of his 
being. Such a man is needed in every calling. 

This century calls loudly for men who know 
how to transmute their knowledge into power. We 
are living in a very practical age; theories and 
theorists are not in demand. The cry is ever for 
[ 44 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


a man who can deliver the goods, a man possess- 
ing practical ability and executive force. 

“How long do you think I will be able to keep 
my place?” an anxious employee asked his em- 
ployer. “Until a better man comes along,” was 
the prompt reply. “I make it a rule to better the 
personnel of my employees whenever a better man 
or woman appears. This is the way I keep up the 
high standard of my establishment. I am always 
weeding out the culls, displacing good with better, 
better with best. This is my rule.” 

This may sound very cold-blooded. But it is 
business, and there is no sentiment in business. 
Everyone in this man’s model establishment knows 
that he can only hold his job until his better comes 
along, and this is a perpetual spur to each em- 
ployee, from the highest to the lowest, to keep 
constantly growing and improving, making him- 
self the biggest man it is possible for him to be. 

How many of those who grumble about the 
hardness of luck, of fate, the cruelty of the world 
do this? How many of us can say with Jean Paul 
Richter, “I have made as much of myself as could 
be made of the stuff, and no man should require 
more” ? 

Let no man dare complain that he has been ill 
treated by the world until he has made the most 
of “the stuff” that was given him, the talents and 
possibilities the Creator implanted in him. 

This is what the new progressive era expects 

[ 45 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


from every child born to its privileges and oppor- 
tunities — that he raise to its highest possible value, 
“the stuff” that has been given him. To do this 
he must hammer out a place for himself by “steady 
and regular blows” or be content to leave “the 
stuff” in as crude and undeveloped a state as that 
in which he received it. 

Every now and then in human history Nature 
has thrown out a specimen which has approxi- 
mated the man or woman God intended ; but most 
of us are dwarfs of what we were expected to be, 
what we are capable of being, if we only do our 
part in finishing the work the Creator began — 
making man. 

Every one has two callings. One is the art or 
profession, the occupation or work, whatever it 
may be, which shall give him a living, provide for 
his material wants; the other, the highest call 
which comes to every human being , is first , to be a 
man. 

The secret of Garfield’s success was that from 
the start he heard and obeyed the higher call. 
When but a mere boy he was asked what he in- 
tended to do in life. He replied, “I am going to 
try to make myself a man; for, if I do not do that 
first I shall not be able to make anything of my- 
self.” This is the secret of every true success. 

To be a large, full-rounded man, not merely a 
great engineer or a great merchant, an eminent 
lawyer or physician, ought to be a man’s principal 

1 46 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


aim. The bread-and-butter side of life is impor- 
tant, but not the most important, and no one who 
is ambitious to get up, as well as on, can afford 
to make it the exclusive aim of his existence. It is 
a good thing, a desirable and praiseworthy thing, 
to be great in one’s specialty, but an infinitely 
greater thing is to be a man, to have the confi- 
dence of one’s fellow-men, to be loved, esteemed, 
respected. 

The world wants men who are well balanced, 
who are not cursed with some inherent defect or 
moral weakness which cripples their usefulness and 
neutralizes all their power. While specialists are 
in demand, there is little hope for men who are 
one-sided in their development, and who have sent 
all the energies of their being into one narrow 
twig, so that all the other branches of their lives 
have withered and died. Men who do not take 
half views of things — men of completeness, and 
of large comprehensive ability, — are needed every- 
where. 

In the material universe we behold steadfast 
order and beauty as the result of equilibrium be- 
tween opposing forces. The balance of forces 
which in equilibrium give us the noblest type of 
manhood is sometimes seriously disturbed by lack 
of practical wisdom, which, as Arthur Helps says, 
“acts in the mind as gravitation does in the ma- 
terial world, combining, keeping things in their 
places, and maintaining a mutual dependence 
[ 47 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTOR J, OR 

amongst the various parts of the system.” A thou- 
sand biographies of men who have had their share 
of fame carry the lesson embodied in Emerson’s 
declaration that practical wisdom or plain common 
sense is the basis of genius, and in Young’s forcible 
remark, that, “with the talents of an angel a man 
may be a fool.” 

The world wants men of common sense, — those 
who will not let a college education spoil them 
for a practical everyday life. It wants men who 
are educated all over, whose hands are deft, whose 
eyes are alert and microscopic, and whose brains 
are keen and well developed. Every employer is 
looking for such employees. The whole world 
is looking for men who can do things. 

Yet with all the demand for young men of force, 
energy, and purpose, young men symmetrically de- 
veloped, trained to do some particular thing; with 
managers and superintendents of great institutions 
everywhere hunting for good people to fill all sorts 
of positions, and on all sides people asking where 
to find a good workman, a polite and efficient 
clerk, an honest cashier, a stenographer who can 
spell and punctuate, and is generally well in- 
formed; with thousands always out of employ- 
ment; with hundreds of applicants for every va- 
cant place, why is it we are told that never before 
was it so hard to get a good employee for almost 
any position as today? 

They who make up the army of the unemployed, 
[ 48 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


haunting intelligence offices, tramping about from 
store to store, from office to factory, wondering 
why others succeed when they fail, why others get 
the positions when they are denied, probably in 
nine cases out of ten are afraid of hard work, or 
are deficient in education or training, or have some 
other defect which bars them out. 

The fatal defect in most cases is that these sup- 
posed men, who expected to fill men’s places in the 
world, are in reality not men enough to fill the 
places. They are not men in the sense of possess- 
ing in a high degree the distinctive qualities of true 
manhood. 

Herodotus long ago said that human creatures 
were very plentiful, but men very scarce. In our 
own day, Thomas Carlyle, the “sage of Chelsea,” 
described the population of his country as consist- 
ing of so many millions, “mostly fools.” 

While we may disagree with the ancient his- 
torian and the modern philosopher, it cannot be 
denied that manly men, who are also efficient, edu- 
cated, trained, practical, men of common sense, 
are sadly in the minority. Besides the out-and-out 
incompetents, there is a large class of men who 
impress us as immense possibilities. They seem 
to have a sweep of intellect that, is grand; a pene- 
trative power that is phenomenal; they seem to 
know everything, to have read everything, to have 
seen everything. Nothing seems to escape the 
keenness of their vision. But somehow they are 
[ 49 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

forever disappointing our expectations. They 
raise great hopes only to dash them. They are 
men of great promise, but they never pay. There 
is some indefinable lack in their make-up. They 
are not fitted for the common duties of life. And 
what we need in every rank of society is men who 
can fulfill, not some, but all the offices of a man. 

Rousseau said, “Whoever is well educated to 
discharge the duty of a man cannot be badly pre- 
pared to fill any of those offices that have a rela- 
tion to him. It matters little to me whether my 
pupil be designed for the army, the pulpit, or the 
bar. To live is the profession I would teach him. 
When I have done with him, it is true he will be 
neither a soldier, a lawyer, nor a divine. Let him 
first be a man. Fortune may remove him from 
one rank to another, as she pleases, he will be al- 
ways found in his place.” 

First be a man, and then, no matter what your 
vocation, your real worth will make itself felt. 
If you are not a man, no training, no culture, no 
tricks of manner can conceal the truth. You never 
can hide that. 

A little boy, standing on a scales, and being very 
anxious to outweigh his playmate, puffed out his 
cheeks, and swelled up like a little frog. “Oho I” 
cried the playmate in scorn, “that doesn’t do any 
good; you can only weigh what you are!” 

“You can only weigh what you are,” in all the 
weighing of life. You may sometimes impose 
[ 50 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


upon your neighbor’s judgment, you may deceive 
others for a short time, but never can you belie the 
estimate of the All-seeing. 

The man who would be a man must be true 
through and through. 

What this means in the common walks of life, 
amid the temptations that test a man’s caliber, was 
splendidly illustrated by Admiral Dewey’s son at 
the outset of his career. The young man, who had 
just entered business in a New York house at a 
salary of twenty dollars a month, beginning at the 
bottom, at his father’s request, was offered a posi- 
tion upon the editorial staff of a paper whose un- 
scrupulous editor saw an opportunity to use the 
son of the famous admiral, fresh from his victory 
at Manila, for advertising purposes. “You need 
write no articles, nor do any reporting,” said the 
editor; “just sign your name to an article every 
day and I will pay you two hundred dollars a 
month.” But the son of the Manila hero was 
worthy of his father, and positively refused to lend 
his name to any such dishonesty. He preferred 
hard work at twenty dollars a month to no work 
and a big salary gained by smirching his manhood 
by being false to himself. 

From his earliest childhood the dignity and im- 
portance of the great office he is destined to fill is 
instilled into the heir apparent to every royal 
throne. The young crown prince is reared and 
educated with this object constantly in view. He 
[ 5i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


is never allowed for a moment to forget his dig- 
nity; that a throne is waiting for him, and that 
some day, if he lives, he will be ruler of a nation. 

Every child is a prince, a son of the King of 
kings, with as superb possibilities, as magnificent 
opportunities as ever awaited the crown prince of 
any royal house. Each one has an opportunity to 
make good, an opportunity to make a superb con- 
tribution to the race, an opportunity to develop his 
marvelous possibilities, to unfold his resources; an 
opportunity to build a superb manhood on the 
foundation the Almighty has given him. 

The time will come when the average of human 
beings will be equal or superior to the grandest 
specimens yet produced. This is the hope of the 
race. This is the only rational meaning of man’s 
appearance on the earth. This is the final solution 
of the human riddle, — the production of a perfect 
man, a perfect woman. 


[ 52 ] 


THE FOUNDATION OF 
SUCCESS 

“Don’t risk a life’s superstructure upon a day’s foundation.” 

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for 
his opportunity when it comes. — Disraeli. 

“Don’t wait for your opportunity; make it, prepare for it, 
it will come.” 

A T country fairs men sometimes enter horses 
for the races without any special thought, 
or confidence, of their winning; they just 
want to see what they will do. They do not exer- 
cise or train them down fine, and enter them with 
a determination to win the prize, as the profes- 
sional racer does; and, of course, they do not win. 

Multitudes of young men enter their vocations 
in a similar way, without any preparation or any 
special thought of winning out. They just get a 
job, perhaps the first that comes along, regardless 
of whether it fits their particular bent, with a view 
of changing if they do not happen to like the work, 
or if it is too difficult. They are the “floaters” 
who have no definite goal in view, who do not pre- 
pare for their life work, and who never get any- 
where. Only the young man who has had a thor- 
ough training, who lays a broad and solid foun- 
[ 53 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


elation, for his future career, and who enters the 
race determined to succeed, can reach the winning 
post. 

There was a time in our early history when 
some American youths without much education or 
any special training achieved most remarkable suc- 
cesses, but to-day competition has become so severe 
that the chances of success for the uneducated, un- 
trained man or woman are practically nil. 

Yet notwithstanding all this, we see people on 
every hand going into undertakings which require 
years of the most exacting preparation, discipline 
and training, with little education and no train- 
ing. We see* men and women trying to write 
books, or to correspond for the press, who know 
little of the structure of language, and are ignor- 
ant of the rudiments of grammar, the laws of 
logic, the principles of rhetoric, or the rules of 
English composition. 

Others are dabbling in art, or studying elocu- 
tion, music, medicine, oratory, or some other pro- 
fession, without any stable foundation on which 
to build. They struggle on without any chance 
of success, often unable to make even the most 
precarious living, because they did not prepare for 
their work. They didn’t think it worth while, did 
not think it necessary to spend years laying foun- 
dations underground. They wanted to put in their 
work where it would count immediately, where 
people would see it. They were not willing to 
[ 54 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

bury some of the best years of their youth out of 
sight, in making a base for life’s, superstructure. 
When too late, after youth has passed, they 
awaken to the magnitude of their mistake. 

I have known some very pathetic cases of men 
who, because they did not when young appreciate 
the importance of an education and a superb train- 
ing for their careers, found themselves in middle 
life, goaded on by an ambition which they could 
not satisfy because they had not had the early 
training needed as the groundwork of success. 
They were compelled to- go through life doing 
comparatively little things, continually handi- 
capped by their ignorance, when they had superb 
native ability had it only been trained. 

I knew a judge on the bench who got there 
through “pull,” who used to study nights, and 
Sundays and holidays, to make up for his lack of 
early education. He said he had begun to study 
law when a youth, and did not think a college 
course would help him, and now found himself 
greatly handicapped by the fact that he was not 
well read, that he knew very little about history, 
and that his general education was very deficient. 

Another man who left school as a boy, after 
working round at odd jobs for a short time, started 
out for himself in a little business, but he knew 
almost nothing of arithmetic, had not the slight- 
est idea how to keep books, and the result was 
that after losing what little capital he had his busi- 
[ 55 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

ness went to pieces. He was plucky, however, 
and started again; and to make up his deficiencies 
used to work late at night studying, but he nearly 
ruined his health, trying to do with great diffi- 
culty and pains what he could have done so easily 
in his youth. 

This is a sample of what we see in every de- 
partment of life. Only a short time ago I met a 
school teacher, who had managed through in- 
fluence to get a school in the country, who knew 
almost nothing about the subjects he had to teach. 
He told me that he had to work hard nights and 
Sundays to keep ahead of his pupils. 

In this country, as perhaps in no other, young 
people go into business and professions half pre- 
pared. In some countries the domestic servants 
are trained for their work. Household service 
is a profession with them. But our young people 
rush into housekeeping and enter all sorts of occu- 
pations without training, and take their chances 
of making up for their lacks and deficiencies later. 

If we were to examine the men and women in 
the great failure army of to-day we should find 
that most of them never half prepared for their 
life work. 

People who are trying to rear the superstruc- 
ture of their lives on a foundation of ignorance 
are in the position of an army that should start 
out on a campaign without provisions or supplies 
of any kind, or without being armed. 

[ 56 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


It has been said that battles are nearly always 
lost or won before the conflict takes place. The 
army which has taken pains to fortify every weak 
point, to equip itself in the most thorough manner 
for every possible exigency, to make an exhaustive 
study of the ground on which the battle is to be 
fought, and to plan beforehand for every emer- 
gency that is liable to arise, is the one to which 
victory is most likely to fall. 

The same thorough preparation is necessary for 
the man who would succeed in the battle of life. 
He must be fortified at every point by a superb 
preparation, by the training of every faculty of 
his being. 

I was once in what is called a “rush” town. The 
place had only a short time before been opened up 
for settlements, and there had been a grand rush 
for building sites. Buildings of all sorts had been 
rushed up in great haste, with very poor founda- 
tions. Some of them had no basement or cellar, 
practically no foundation, the timbers being placed 
right on the surface of the ground. Of course 
in a few years these began to rot, and the super- 
structures were in a dangerous condition, contin- 
ually needing patching and propping to keep them 
from toppling over. 

Many people start their careers in a similar way, 
without any foundation, and sooner or later they 
come to grief, and then wonder why they have 
made such a botch of their careers. They lay their 
[ 57 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

failure to hard luck, big trusts, lack of oppor- 
tunity, and to all sorts of reasons but the right 
one — lack of preparation. 

Every young man who makes himself master of 
the details of his calling or profession is sure to 
succeed in time. Nor will he find himself crowded 
much after the race starts. It is because so few 
do this that there are so many failures or only near- 
successes. 

“If I were twenty, and had but ten years to 
live,” said a great writer and scholar, “I would 
spend the first nine years accumulating knowledge 
and getting ready for the tenth.” 

If you expect a broad, grand career, lay your 
foundation accordingly. Be generous with your 
preparation. Let it be just as solid and substan- 
tial and broad as possible. Do not risk your life 
structure upon a little picayune, insecure founda- 
tion. Let everything you do point to a magnificent 
edifice. 

What is the first step to put one’s self in a 
condition of preparedness for life? There is but 
one answer. To get the broadest possible educa- 
tion. Nothing else will stand you in so good stead 
as to start on your career with a trained brain, a 
well-disciplined mind, a well-equipped mentality. 
Then you are a power wherever you go. It does 
not matter what field we consider, intelligence has 
been the secret of advance. If a little intelligence 
is good, if a fair education pays, a wider educa- 
[ 58 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


tion, a broader culture, will indeed give you at 
the very outset an incalculable advantage. 

If I had to begin my career over again and was 
offered the choice of capital and no education, or 
education and no capital, I should unhesitatingly 
choose the latter. People in every line of endeavor 
are being constantly surprised by what someone 
has wrought in the same line through bringing a 
superior intelligence, a broader education, a finer 
discipline to bear upon it. Most people look upon 
this as a happy hit. But it is the luck which comes 
from a better trained mind, from a larger outlook, 
more skill, better training, persistent endeavor, 
and undaunted courage. 

I know a young man in New England who be- 
lieved that he could bring the broadest culture, the 
most liberal education, to the farm with great 
effect. Although he received only twenty-five cents 
a day when he first made this resolve, yet he earned 
many times that, by forming the habit of thinking, 
planning, studying during every bit of his spare 
time, spending his evenings poring over scientific 
works, reading everything he could get hold of 
which related to the soil, or which could bring 
him power to raise the best possible crops. To 
him every bit of education was like adding a more 
powerful lens to the telescope. It brought out 
things which were invisible before. New worlds 
of beauty and wonder opened up to him as he in- 
creased his knowledge. He could see wealth even 
[ 59 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

in what to his neighbor was a worn-out soil. Sci- 
ence told him how to supply any deficiency by fer- 
tilizing and alternating the crops. He believed 
that if he knew enough he could get greater re- 
turns, more wealth out of the ground, than any 
farmer of his acquaintance dreamed of. While 
his neighbors would plant corn on the same piece 
of land for a dozen years, taking the same qualities 
from the soil every year until it became exhausted, 
he knew that an educated farmer could get the best 
every year by introducing crops that would take 
different properties from the soil. 

The result was, that on an old worn-out farm, 
supposed to be worthless, he performed what to 
his ignorant neighbors was a miracle. To them 
he seemed a magician, who but touched the soil 
and riches leaped out to him. They could not 
understand how he could produce such magnifi- 
cent crops and take all the prizes at fairs with his 
superior horses, cattle, sheep, and products. This 
man’s farm, with its beautiful buildings, its fine 
home, with library and works of art, its labora- 
tory for soil experiment, seemed like an oasis in 
the midst of a desert. Yet the soil of his farm was 
of the same quality as that of hundreds of farms 
all about him. The difference was in the man, 
in q;he breadth of his education and his special 
training. 

What is true of the farmer is true of the me- 
chanic, the merchant, the engineer, and every other 
[ 60 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


worker. Trained brains count. Nothing pays so 
great dividends as a broad, liberal, practical educa- 
tion. To do a thing with intelligence, to be able 
to turn the light of a liberal knowledge upon every- 
thing you do, is of untold advantage. Every bit 
of mental training, every bit of education or cul- 
ture, is of advantage in the struggle for existence. 
The microscope does not create anything new, but 
it reveals marvels. To educate the eye adds to 
its magnifying power until it sees beauty where 
before it saw only ugliness. It reveals a world we 
never suspected, and finds the greatest beauty even 
in the commonest things. The eye of an Agassiz 
can see worlds which the uneducated eye never 
dreamed of. The cultured hand can do a thou- 
sand things that the uneducated hand cannot do. 
It becomes graceful, steady of nerve, strong, skill- 
ful; indeed, it almost seems to think, so animated 
is it with intelligence. The cultured will can seize 
and hold the possessor, with irresistible power 
and nerve, to almost superhuman effort. The edu- 
cated touch can almost perform miracles. The 
educated taste can achieve wonders almost past 
belief. 

“The more you know,” said Charles Kingsley, 
“the more you can save yourself and that which 
belongs to you, and do more work with less effort.” 
The more you know of your own line of work, by 
so much do you set yourself a little apart from 
a hundred of your competitors who are content to 
[ 61 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

let well enough alone. The more you know of 
other men’s lines of work, by so much are you the 
broader and the better fitted for your own. As 
has been well said, “Competition has no terrors 
for the man who can do his ‘stunt’ better than 
anybody else.” 

Webster’s preparation for his commanding posi- 
tion at the top of the line, and especially for 
one of the greatest triumphs of his career, his reply 
to Hayne, of South Carolina, in the Senate, was 
begun when he was only eight years old. About 
that time he bought at a country store a cotton 
handkerchief on which was printed the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. Before a pine-knot fire 
the boy committed it to memory. This interested 
him so in the Constitution that he collected every- 
thing bearing upon it he could find. Through the 
information thus gathered from early boyhood on- 
ward his mind was so saturated with the history 
of the Constitution, and the principles of the Re- 
publican and Democratic parties, that the whole 
country was electrified by his tremendous onslaught 
upon Hayne. Even Webster’s friends, who knew 
his marvelous resources, doubted his ability to re- 
ply to the Senator from South Carolina without 
more time to prepare. Said a biographer: “Web- 
ster had but a single night in which to make prepa- 
ration to answer the really important parts of the 
preceding speech of his opponent.” But said 
Webster himself, “When the time came I was al- 
[ 62 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

ready posted, and I had only to take down my 
notes and refresh my memory.” 

“Always room at the top?” Oh, yes, there will 
always be plenty of room there. But the superior 
men, the men ready to take the greatest positions 
and fulfill large obligations, the men trained from 
bottom to top of a business in thoroughness, and 
from east to west in knowledge of its possibilities, 
will always be few, and generally fewer than the 
places waiting to be filled. 

In the advancing era of ever-increasing pros- 
perity, and of larger opportunity and development 
before our country, this will be likely to be more 
and more the case. He who looks abroad at the 
great schemes already afoot, and who has a little 
imagination as to the future of the things which 
are to come, will have good ground for thinking 
that, in the next decade or score of years, the “top” 
sphere, the call for superior service, will be stronger 
than ever before. 

A “pull” or influence will not help you in the 
least, because unless you can command the situa- 
tion by your knowledge and ability you will 
not hold the place into which you have been 
boosted. 

'Experience has shown that it is the running 
along the ground for several hundred feet that 
enables a flying machine to get up sufficient speed 
and impetus to rise into the higher air. In start- 
ing from an elevated platform it cannot gather 

[ 63 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

the required force necessary to keep it sailing in 
the air. 

The late Professor Langley, in experimenting 
with his flying machine, in order to enable it to get 
what he thought would be good headway, made 
the fatal mistake of starting it from a platform 
sixty feet high. The machine, which after his fail- 
ure was nicknamed “Langley’s Folly,” plunged 
straight down into the water; its inventor’s life 
dream was shattered, and he died, it was said, of 
a broken heart! A few years ago Glen Curtis, 
the noted aviator, made this same discredited ma- 
chine fly by starting it, not from a sixty-foot ele- 
vation, but from the ground. 

Many a father makes a similar fatal mistake 
with his son to that which Professor Langley made 
with his airship. He starts him too high up. In- 
stead of letting him begin at the bottom as an of- 
fice boy, as, perhaps he did himself, he starts him 
in at the top as superintendent or manager of his 
business, or as the head of some department; and, 
of course, the youth fails, because he has had no 
experience in handling men, knows little of human 
nature, and nothing at all of the business he un- 
dertakes to direct. 

I know a young man who was put at the head 
of a large concern when he was graduated from 
college because his father, who was getting on in 
years, wanted his son to succeed him and to keep 
the business in the family. The young man had 
[ 64 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


not the slightest idea of business. He had never 
bought or sold goods, had no experience whatever 
as salesman, traveling or otherwise, and none in 
selecting, placing, or managing help. He was con- 
ceited into the bargain, and would not take advice 
or suggestions from older men who had spent most 
of their lives in helping to build up the concern. 
He felt that he was superior to every man who 
had not had the opportunity to take a college 
course, and undertook to boss and direct men who, 
so far as business was concerned, had that which 
no college training, however extended, can give — 
the actual knowledge, experience, and special train- 
ing which made them experts in their line. 

The result was that young Mr. Know-it-all made 
such a mess of his job that in a comparatively short 
time the whole concern was utterly demoralized 
and headed for failure. The business which it 
had taken a lifetime to build up would have been 
wrecked but for the father’s return to the helm. 
He quickly stemmed the tide of demoralization 
and brought order out of chaos. The helm re- 
sponded to the hand of the master, because he 
knew the details of everything under him, and thus 
had control of the situation. He was able to guide 
the business ship back into safe waters, because he 
had begun, as a boy, sweeping out the store, and 
had worked up through every department, com- 
pletely mastering the details of each before he ad- 
vanced to the one above. It was the development 

[ 65 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

of strength in this climb from the bottom to the top 
that enabled him in a great crisis to win out. 

Try to make your first ascent from the ground. 
You are not a bird that you can start from 
the top. You will find it much safer, as well as 
a surer way of rising, to remain working away 
on the ground floor, until you get up sufficient 
stamina and speeding power to rise to the upper 
stories. 

Often a university graduate has to take up with 
an apprentice’s apron and hammer at the end of 
all his training. If he does not shrink from this, 
but goes ahead in the best place he can find and 
does the best he knows how, there is a higher place 
awaiting him, and that very soon. But if he holds 
back for a situation to his liking, for a “white 
shirt” place in a stylish locality, the world will go 
right on without him. 

You cannot start too high up and expect to suc- 
ceed, because it is the training and experience 
gained in working up from the bottom which en- 
able a man to control and to hold a high position 
when he reaches it. 

Our young people don’t want to take time to 
prepare. They want something, and want it 
quickly. They are not willing to lay broad, deep 
foundations. The weary years in preparatory 
school and college dishearten them. They want 
only a “smattering” of an education. The shifts 
to cover up ignorance, and “the constant trem- 
[ 66 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

bling lest some blunder should expose one’s empti- 
ness” are pitiable. 

Take but one calling, stenography, for instance, 
and what do we find? Multitudes of stenog- 
raphers who are practically doomed to inferior 
positions and small salaries, because they never 
prepared themselves for the best positions. They 
may be perfectly capable, but they are held down 
by their ignorance. They are not broadly read, 
not well educated; they are confused every time 
they come across an unusual word, a scientific term, 
an historical or political reference. Their vocabu- 
laries are painfully limited, their experience nar- 
row; they are always running to other people for 
the meaning of words, or asking how to spell 
them. Many of them are absolutely ignorant of 
the commonest historical events and of the greatest 
names in history. 

The same is true of other vocations. Short 
cuts and abridged methods are the demand of the 
hour; skimping on foundations is the rule. Young 
men barely squeeze through their examinations in 
specialties. Many a law student does not think 
it worth while to read up the cases which would 
throw light on class lectures and lessons as he goes 
along; all he wants is just to get through, just 
barely to slip into the profession; and then all will 
be well. If he can only get admission to the bar 
he will be all right. If he ever succeeds in this he 
makes only a third or fourth-rate lawyer. Because 

[ 67 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

he is not well grounded in general principles, he is 
obliged to study for every odd case that comes his 
way as though he had never seen a law book. He 
cannot cite precedents because when a student 
he did not read them if he could possibly avoid 
it. 

An art student begins to paint pictures before 
he is grounded in the fundamental principles of 
art. He sells a few amateur productions and is so 
flattered by his success that he is never again con- 
tent to study first principles, and of course proves 
to be only a second-class artist. 

One who wants to be a great musician learns to 
play a few tunes in public, and is not willing after- 
ward to spend hours every day in dry, dreary prac- 
tice, and to his chagrin never becomes more than 
an amateur. 

A young writer, flattered by seeing some of his 
early productions in print, thinks he can get along 
without devoting years to practice in rewriting ar- 
ticles, in study and observation, in hunting for 
hours for a word to fit a thought exactly, in learn- 
ing his thesaurus by heart. Of course, his vocabu- 
lary is limited, his expression poverty-stricken, his 
knowledge scant, his imagination weak, his power 
of portrayal almost nil, and he becomes just a hack 
writer, or more likely has to turn to something 
else to eke out a living. 

A student in a technical school who is all eager- 
ness to begin to earn money cannot see much use 
[ 68 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


in chemistry, mechanics, or physics for the man 
who is to be an ordinary engineer. But by and by 
a great engineering problem demanding a thor- 
ough knowledge of the very subjects he slighted 
confronts him, and he is helpless to solve it. He 
has struck the weak point in his preparation and 
of course the chain of his career parts at the weak 
link. The opportunity of his life has come and he 
is not ready for it. 

How many a man has stood in this position 
when the great chance of a lifetime stared him in 
the face ! How bitter his chagrin and disappoint- 
ment when obliged to step aside for another, per- 
haps a fellow-student, who had thought it worth 
while to study a hundred things which he neg- 
lected, because they did not seem at the time to 
bear directly upon his future profession! 

Turner, the great English artist, went out one 
day with some fellow-students to study nature. 
When evening came his companions showed him 
their sketches, and rallied him upon his idleness, 
since he had nothing to show. “I have done this, 
at least,” he said, “I have learned how a lake looks 
when pebbles are thrown into it.” He had spent 
the whole day sitting upon a rock, throwing peb- 
bles into a lake ! No other artist could paint such 
ripples as Turner painted. 

How much pains are you willing to put into the 
important job of preparing for your life work? 
How much time are you ready to give to studying 

[ 69 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

the details of your trade or profession so that you 
may be a master craftsman in your line? 

“The gods sell anything and to everybody at a 
fair price.” The price of mastery in any field is 
thorough preparation. A good opportunity will 
only hold you up to ridicule, will only emphasize 
your inefficiency and make your weakness all the 
more conspicuous if you are not prepared for it. 
The preparation is more than the opportunity. In 
fact, the preparation makes the opportunity. 

It is the surgeon who has spent years in the mi- 
nute study of anatomy, the one who is master of 
every detail of his profession who is called in great 
crises, and whose skill saves many a precious life. 

The great trouble with the majority of youth 
is that they do not appreciate that it is the little 
difference between fairly good, or good, and excel- 
lent that wins. The difference between the good 
surgeon and the superb operator, for example, is 
that which enables the one to get from five to ten 
thousand dollars for an operation and limits the 
other to perhaps a hundred dollars, or less. 

Very often the layman cannot appreciate or un- 
derstand why this little difference between the ex- 
pert in surgery, the man who has the quick eye and 
the superbly trained hand, and the one who is not 
so finely trained can be of such importance. But 
it is just that degree of extra equipment and skill 
that will not let the knife slip when a life hangs 
in the balance, and a slip but the depth of a sheet 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

of tissue paper might mean death, that makes all 
the difference between a superb success and medi- 
ocrity. The man who has not acquired that deli- 
cacy of touch, that nicety of adjustment between 
eye and hand that insures perfect work, has not 
paid the expert’s price in special training. 

“Half-way knowledge is all right if you want 
to go half-way to the goal of success,” said E. C. 
Holman. It is knowledge, complete skill, expert- 
ness that takes the first prize in life. There are 
tens of thousands of people in this country to-day 
who will never take second, or even third or fourth 
prizes in life, because they never prepared, or at 
best only half prepared, for the contest. “Never 
half prepared for his life work” would make a 
good epitaph for innumerable failures. 

“Do we marvel,” asks one, “at the skill which 
enables a great artist to take a little color that lies 
inert upon his palette and presently so to trans- 
form it into a living presence that our hearts throb 
faster only to look upon it, and there come upon 
the soul all those influences which one feels beneath 
the shadow of the Jungfrau, the Matterhorn, or 
amid the awful solitude of Mont Blanc ? But back 
of that apparent ease and skill are the years of 
struggling and effort and application which have 
conferred the envied power.” 

The engineer at a power-house knows that com- 
paratively little power will pull the electric cars 
through the level streets, but he must always have 
[ 7i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


power enough generated to take the loaded cars 
over the high, steep hills on the lines. It is not 
the dead levels of life, but the hills of difficulty, 
the great emergencies, the crises, that test our re- 
serve power. 

Do we not ask a thousand times a year why this 
one or that one failed to reach his goal? It was 
because his power ran out. He did not have re- 
serve enough. A little more physical strength, a 
little better education, a little better training, and 
he would have won out. 

The greatest things that have been done in the 
world have been done with comparative ease, sim- 
ply because the doers had a tremendous reservoir 
of reserve power. 


c 72 ] 


TIMIDITY AND SENSI- 
TIVENESS-HOW TO 
OVERCOME 


Thousands of young people are held back from undertak- 
ing what they long to do and are capable of doing, and are 
kept from trying to make real their great life-dreams, be- 
cause they are afraid to jostle with the world. Their super- 
sensitiveness makes cowards of them. 

Morbid sensitiveness requires heroic treatment. 

A man who appreciates himself at his true value, and who 
gives his neighbors credit for being at least as good as he 
is, cannot be a victim of over-sensitiveness. 

“ T X OW can I overcome my shyness, my 
I I timidity, my self-consciousness, which are 
keeping me back, ruining my happi- 
ness?’’ I am constantly receiving letters from 
young people asking this or similar questions. The 
form may differ, but always the meaning is the 
same. “How can I get rid of timidity, sensitive- 
ness? I haven’t the courage to branch out, I can- 
not push myself aggressively as those about me do. 
I shrink from mingling with people. I shrink 
from responsibility, from everything which brings 
me into observation, which makes me the target 
of others’ eyes. I am so sensitive of what other 
people think of me, so afraid I will make a bad 

[ 73 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

impression, that it spoils my conversation, my man- 
ner, my appearance. I simply suffer tortures from 
this mortifying sensitiveness which constantly 
holds me back. I have lost position after posi- 
tion because I am so thin-skinned, I cannot stand 
‘the gaff.’ I cannot take a scolding or a criticism 
without wincing. I feel so cut, so abused and hurt 
by any fault-finding that I cannot stand it. I sim- 
ply get out.” 

Shakespeare says that “conscience doth make 
cowards of us all.” Substitute consciousness — 
self-consciousness — for conscience and you have a 
still more potent and universal coward maker. 

A great number of people are held back from 
undertaking what they long to do; are hindered 
from making their life-dreams real, because of 
their embarrassing self-consciousness. They are 
afraid to get out and jostle with the world. They 
shrink from exposing to strangers their sore and 
sensitive spots, which smart from the slightest 
touch. They hide their light under a bushel be- 
cause the mere thought of drawing attention to 
themselves makes them blush and tremble. Super- 
sensitiveness makes cowards of them. 

There are men and women struggling along in 
poverty and obscurity who might have been in infi- 
nitely better circumstances but for their extreme 
sensitiveness and timidity. These failings go to- 
gether; they are symptoms of the same disease. 

The Good Book says: “Blessed are the meek, 

[ 74 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


for they shall inherit the earth.” It does not say 
“Blessed are the timid, for they shall inherit the 
earth,” for the timid, self-effacers will not inherit 
much of anything but humiliating experiences and 
disappointments. The great prizes of life are hid- 
den from the timid, the sensitive, those who efface 
themselves. 

Those self-effacing people seem to think that the 
assertion of the “I” in any circumstances is a sign of 
egotism; that it would be bold, forward, to assert 
themselves and try to push ahead. They forget 
that the world takes us at our own rating; and 
that our estimates are accepted at their face value. 
The world will not trouble to find out whether 
they are correct or not. If you put out a lawyer’s 
sign people will not investigate to see if you are 
not really a physician or something else. They 
take it for granted that you are a lawyer until 
you prove otherwise. Nor will they presume that 
you have rated yourself too low. They know you 
have lived with yourself a long time, and must 
know yourself better than they do. It is perfectly 
natural for them to take you at your own rating, 
and that rating you show in your appearance, in 
your manner. 

The world belongs to the daring, the self- 
confident, to men and women who have self- 
assurance and who push themselves forward. 
Those who remain in the background, who depre- 
ciate themselves, and think that the world will 
[ 75 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

sooner or later discover their real merit, are head- 
ing toward disappointment. If you shrink from 
notice, if you go about with the air of a failure, a 
timid, half-hearted weakling, you will be taken for 
just that and nothing more. If you do not over- 
come your self-effacing tendency, your shyness, and 
thin-skinned sensitiveness, you will be doomed to a 
life of mediocrity, or worse. 

The bashful and sensitive, the morbidly self- 
conscious, are left in the rear because they never 
develop the qualities which are imperative to lead- 
ership and to progress. Even though they pos- 
sess sterling ability, their lack of courage, the ab- 
sence of daring and aggressiveness in their 
make-up, their shrinking from society, to a great 
extent, negative their ability. One must have self- 
assurance and sufficient aggressiveness to enable 
him to use his sterling qualities to advantage. He 
must not be so thin-skinned to reproof or criticism 
that it will handicap him in the life race. 

I was recently talking with a perplexed young 
man about his failure to get on. He felt that this 
was due to his over-sensitiveness, but he did not 
know how to rid himself of it. He said that his 
employer was constantly hurting him so that he 
could not do his best. He complained that his 
criticisms seemed like reflections upon his honesty 
and his ability. 

I tried to show him the folly of such a course 
if he ever expected to get on. “Your em- 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ployer,” I said, “probably knows very well that 
you have very good material in you, that you could 
undoubtedly get on if you could stand criticism, 
if you were not so thin-skinned, so sensitive; but 
no employer is going to bother himself very much 
to help an employee to rise when he sees that he 
resents every little suggestion and every criticism 
as an insult, instead of accepting it for what it is. 
Listen to him and follow his advice. Do not take 
it in, such a spirit as to shut him up so that he will 
say to himself: ‘It is not worth while to bother 
with this fellow; there is nothing to him. He 
hasn’t the stuff in him to take his medicine. Let 
him go.’ ” 

If you mean business, are determined to get on 
in the world, you want to put yourself in a recep- 
tive attitude for every bit of knowledge and all the 
better methods, better ways of doing things, that 
you can get hold of. No matter where it comes 
from, whether from office boy or boss, it is your 
business to absorb knowledge, to profit by mistakes 
and criticisms, to gain skill, expertness in every 
way possible. These are the steps upon which you 
will climb into something higher. They may not 
prove easy steps but there is no other way to win 
out than to make stepping-stones of your 
stumbling-blocks. 

Remember, this is not mere “thick-skinnedness,” 
mere dullness of perception, dumbness. On the 
contrary it is quickness of perception and common 

[ 77 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

sense. It is the man who feels the sting of criti- 
cism, but interprets it impersonally, suffers the pain 
and turns it into power; the man who does not 
shrink from a rebuke or from censure, but instead 
welcomes them or anything else that will tend to 
raise the standard of his work — this is the man 
who will get to the top of the ladder. 

Many over-sensitive people become despondent 
and discouraged because they do not get on faster. 
They do not rebound from their setbacks, discour- 
agements or failures as the less thin-skinned do. 
They are so sensitive about o-ther people’s opin- 
ions and criticisms, so afraid that their failure to 
get on will be set down to lack of ability rather 
than to the true cause, that they tend to become 
morbid and cease trying to progress. 

We are apt to think that there are no diseases 
or disease tendencies but the physical, but many 
of the worst kind are mental. Timidity, a morbid 
self-consciousness, super-sensitiveness, — these are 
as truly diseases as smallpox or typhus. Their 
victims are often made quite helpless, and are never 
capable of doing their best. They cannot see 
things in their proper proportions, nor can they 
make the wisest choice in a perplexing situation, 
because their timidity blinds their judgment, and 
kills their courage, so that they are In no condition 
to decide what they can do, or to attempt a thing 
they may be amply qualified in other respects to 
carry to a successful issue. 

[ 78 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

Timid, sensitive souls lack the power of firm 
and final decision. They are always putting off 
beginning things. Procrastination runs in their 
blood, because their courage and their self-faith 
are undermined. And this takes the backbone out 
of their will-power. It makes it impossible for 
them to develop that clear grit which forges ahead 
and fears nothing. 

How many people have lost great opportuni- 
ties, have failed to take advantage of their best 
chances in life because of the fear of being thought 
forward or pushing, the fear of ridicule, the dread 
of making themselves conspicuous ! 

Many times when over-sensitive people make a 
failure, they are too timid to try to reinstate them- 
selves, too sensitive to try again. Time and again 
I have known young men and young women, who 
lost their positions, to be out of work for a long 
time because they could not bear to push them- 
selves, to adopt aggressive methods in trying to 
place themselves again. They felt it a sort of per- 
sonal disgrace to have lost their places, although 
they were really not responsible. Those people 
suffer so much from chronic fear about trifles of 
all sorts that their health often becomes impaired. 
They lack vigor, virility, the magnetism of health, 
all of which play so large a part in the average 
successful career. 

Perhaps the keenest source of misery to all over- 
sensitive, self-conscious characters is that, outside 
[ 79 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

of the family circle, they always feel awkward and 
out of place. They never feel comfortable, at ease, 
or at home among strangers or in any sort of a 
social gathering, and they are always looking for 
slights. If they meet a person on the street who 
is absorbed in something else, who does not hap- 
pen to see them, or because of his absorption is not 
quite as cordial in his salutation as they think he 
should be, they immediately jump to the conclu- 
sion that he is trying to cut them and that he in- 
tended to slight them. Every apparent neglect or 
coldness wounds their sensitive natures. They 
dwell upon it and turn it over and over in their 
minds until they often become obsessed by it. They 
are especially sensitive to ridicule. I know people 
who are so afraid of being the butt of ridicule, 
no matter how innocent or friendly, that they suf- 
fer tortures when they think any one is laughing 
at them. And, of course, they imagine anyone 
who laughs in their vicinity is laughing at them. 

The fear of being the target of others’ remarks 
and jests may even handicap great talent. I know 
a young singer who longs to go on the stage, but 
who has never even dared to attempt to sing in 
public because of her very large ankles and feet. 
She thinks that people would make fun of her, 
and although she has a glorious voice and is a born 
actress, her morbid sensitiveness regarding what 
she considers humiliating defects keeps her, prob- 
ably, from a very brilliant career. 

[ 80 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Some people are so painfully self-conscious that 
they resemble sensitive plants whose leaves close 
the moment they are touched. You have to be 
constantly on your guard for fear of hurting them, 
and they have so many tender spots that you must 
exert the greatest care not to inflict a wound. 
They feel a slight more keenly than coarser- 
grained persons would feel a blow. The worst of 
it is, they are always on the lookout for slights, 
and constantly taking offense where none is in- 
tended. 

I know a bright, well-trained young lady, whose 
intimate friends, and even her near relatives, have 
to be continually on the watch for fear of wound- 
ing her. She broods over a joking remark until 
she magnifies it into an insult. She makes herself 
miserable for days over a fancied slight and ex- 
hausts the patience of her friends by asking them 
to explain what they meant by certain expressions, 
looks, or gestures. People who are at first at- 
tracted by her many amiable qualities soon fall 
away from her because of the exactions imposed 
by her over-sensitiveness. 

I always pity people who are mortally afraid 
of being slighted or made fun of, because they are 
always great sufferers. Things are constantly hap- 
pening which arouse their suspicions of intended 
insult or ridicule. If at a public gathering people 
do not come to talk to them they feel that they 
are intentionally slighted. If neighbors do not 
[ 81 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


call on them they are slighted. If they are not 
made much of they are slighted ; if anyone laughs, 
or an innocent joke is passed in their presence they 
feel sure that the fun is being poked at them. In 
short, their morbid self-consciousness makes them 
miserable wherever they go. It makes them cow- 
ards in business and especially in social life. 

There are plenty of men who have courage 
enough to walk to the cannon’s mouth in battle, 
and yet are cowards in a drawing room. Timidity 
and shyness rob them of all spontaneity and nat- 
uralness. They often appear cold, reserved, 
haughty, and stiff, when in reality they are quite the 
reverse. They are tortured when in society or in 
any public place, imagining that they are under 
constant observation and scrutiny, that everyone is 
looking at and criticising them. 

Hawthorne was one of the shyest men that ever 
lived. He used to walk the streets with his eyes 
on the ground to avoid recognizing others, and if 
he saw anyone he knew coming he would cross the 
street to escape the embarrassment of a meeting. 
Later in life, he said God might forgive sins, but 
awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or on 
earth. His own awkwardness was due to his 
timidity, his morbid self-consciousness. 

After spending an evening at Emerson’s house, 
George William Curtis spoke of Hawthorne who 
had sat silent as a shadow all the evening, and had 
scarcely spoken to anyone. Curtis wondered why 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


no one had looked after him. But being “looked 
after” would only have made him more miserable. 
Once when making a call Hawthorne asked his 
hostess what he should talk about, and she advised 
“Climate.” It is not recorded whether he found 
even this topic sufficiently inspiring to tempt him 
to break his habitual silence. Visiting a naval offi- 
cer and being pressed for something to say, Haw- 
thorne asked him if he had ever been in the Sand- 
wich Islands. His host concluded that a man who 
would ask aimless, silly questions of this sort could 
not be much of a genius. 

I know people of great scholarly attainments 
and fine mental caliber, who go through life prac- 
tically unknown, unappreciated, even in their own 
neighborhood. They live by themselves just be- 
cause nobody seems able to get at them, to under- 
stand them. They do not make themselves ap- 
proachable. There is something about them that 
repels people, and yet they feel kindly toward 
everybody. They would be glad of a chance to 
do a favor to anyone, but they are misunderstood, 
because they are too timid and shy to come out of 
their shell. 

A very intelligent young lady of my acquain- 
tance, who has always lived back in the country 
and has traveled little, suffers tortures whenever 
she visits friends in the city, because she imagines 
she is conspicuously lacking in social graces and 
ignorance of city etiquette. Her friends do every- 

[ 83 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

thing in their power to give her pleasure and make 
her happy while with them, but their efforts are 
useless. She is so afraid she is going to say or 
do the wrong thing, that her ignorance of social 
forms is going to embarrass her and humiliate her 
friends, that she feels as though she were on net- 
tles every minute. 

She says that the more she tries to seem at ease 
and to be natural the more provincial and uncom- 
fortable she feels. And for weeks after she re- 
turns home she is miserable, thinking over what a 
fool she has made of herself while in the city. 

Now this girl is wonderfully interesting when 
she is simply natural. When she forgets herself 
and talks about the country and her experiences on 
the farm, she can be actually fascinating. But she 
is obsessed with the idea that anybody who 
amounts to anything lives in the city, and that only 
farmers and nobodies live in the country. She 
loves the country so dearly that she becomes elo- 
quent when she talks about it; but it is impossible 
to make her think that city people would be inter- 
ested to hear her talk of life on the farm, so dif- 
ferent from their own. She feels that the things she 
knows about and loves are vulgar and not to be 
spoken of in polite society. 

Sensitive people are constantly misunderstood 
and underestimated because their real selves are 
never allowed expression. They are so afraid that 
others are weighing and measuring them in the 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


balance and finding them wanting that whenever 
they can they “flock by themselves” as the Irish- 
man put it. Their self-effacing, apologetic atti- 
tude is fatal to their efficiency as well as to their 
comfort and happiness. If instead of avoiding 
others they would mix freely in society and under- 
take responsibility at every opportunity, no matter 
how it might pain them or how every nerve might 
shrink from human contact; if they would stop 
staying alone in corners at receptions and in draw- 
ing rooms, if they would cease worrying about 
their appearance and manner, and would force 
themselves into the great human current, « they 
would soon entirely overcome their self-conscious- 
ness. 

If they would only try to realize that other peo- 
ple are too much wrapped up in thinking about 
themselves and their own affairs to think very 
much about them, and that ninety-nine times out 
of a hundred that which wounds or hurts was not 
intended at all, they would be spared a great deal 
of misery. Keeping this one fact in mind would 
help them wonderfully to rid themselves of their 
handicap. 

A celebrated Japanese psychologist, who had 
made a thorough study of timidity or shyness and 
its causes, was asked to take under his care the 
son of a nobleman and to cure him of that defect, 
which made him ridiculous and caused him great 
suffering. This youth was so bashful that he could 

[ 85 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

scarcely convey food to his mouth in the presence 
of a guest, and would often drop his chopsticks or 
whatever he was eating with, together with his 
food, if anyone happened to look at him. It was 
positively painful to him to meet people or to as- 
sociate with them in any way. The very promi- 
nence and distinction of his family added to his 
embarrassment in public, because it made him 
more an object of attention. Everybody saw his 
weakness, and he was constantly reminded of it. 
This increased his self-consciousness until it had 
become an obsession from which he could not get 
away. He felt that people looked upon him as a 
nobody, a defective member of a noble family, 
who because of his defect never would amount to 
anything. 

When the nobleman .brought his son to the 
psychologist for treatment, he reminded him that 
he had met the youth before. “Don’t you remem- 
ber,” he said, “what a ridiculous figure he cut yes- 
terday just as he was making his grand salute on 
being presented at the house of our friend, Long- 
Ho ; how he stammered, turning around as though 
trying to make his escape, became entangled in the 
folds of a rug and to save himself from falling 
caught hold of a table filled with china, upsetting 
the table, making a great clatter, and how my poor 
unhappy boy ran away in confusion.” 

“Really,” said the professor, “I remember this, 
but I did not attach any importance to it.” 

t 86 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Immediately the youth’s face lighted up. He 
was so pleased to learn that there was somebody 
who did not look upon him as an actual fool. 

In order to observe him at first hand and to 
cure his disease — for in its aggravated forms shy- 
ness is a disease — the professor took the youth into 
his own home, where he could watch him unob- 
served. He would secrete himself where he could 
study his movements when alone, in the garden, 
or other places, as well as indoors. In this way he 
learned that the youth was not naturally awkward 
at all; in fact, he was quite graceful when he was 
not conscious of being observed. 

The kindly professor did everything to gain his 
confidence and to put him at his ease. He intro- 
duced him to his friends as an ordinary pupil, not 
as the son of a noble family, and by thus hiding 
his identity relieved him of much embarrassment, 
while he also had the advantage of not being con- 
stantly reminded of his weakness and scolded for 
it by his father. He cultivated a friendly, even 
a chummy relationship with the boy so as to make 
him forget his defect, and gave him the greatest 
freedom for self-expression both in his studies and 
in his play. He tactfully managed to find out what 
the boy was specially interested in and encouraged 
him to talk about those things, and then carry on 
a conversation on other topics. Gradually, with- 
out being obtrusive, he began to refer to his 
pupil’s bashfulness, and assured him that his trem- 

[ 87 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

bling, his confusion, his stammering, and his pain 
at meeting people, had no real cause except in his 
imagination, and therefore could easily be over- 
come if he would only think more of himself, 
have a better opinion of himself. He endeavored 
to convince him of his real ability, and then showed 
him how his foolish shyness would cripple his 
whole career by robbing him of initiative, cour- 
age, independence, all the qualities that character- 
ize men of large achievements, and that he was too 
bright and too promising, and his future meant too 
much to him, to allow himself to be handicapped 
and probably defeated by a miserable weakness 
unworthy of a man. He urged him to forget him- 
self altogether when in company, and to become 
interested in others, in what they were saying and 
doing: to enter into conversation with those about 
him, and to try to make himself interesting and 
agreeable to everybody. 

The youth followed the professor’s' instruction, 
trying to do everything he had suggested, and 
especially to remember, as he had assured him, 
that he was not awkward or stupid, but, on the 
contrary, that he was graceful and had a lot of 
ability; and that he was greatly mistaken in think- 
ing that other people were observing him or mak- 
ing uncomplimentary remarks about him. 

At first it was very difficult to make himself do 
the things he had always shrunk from, but he per- 
sisted, and gradually gained more ease, and lost 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


much of the awkwardness caused by embarrass- 
ment. He found himself more and more willing 
to converse, and was conscious of greater freedom 
in his tnovement, his thought, and expression. 
This encouraged him very much, and before many 
months he had almost completely overcome the 
handicap which had threatened to ruin his whole 
career, to say nothing of his constant frightful suf- 
fering. 

You can’t do anything well, you never can ap- 
pear at your best, while you are thinking about 
yourself, your failings or your weaknesses. This 
is true in small as well as big things. 

A college president says that when his wife was 
sewing on a button, he asked her how it was that 
when he tried to do that he would always hit the 
button with the needle first, and had great difficulty 
in finding the hole in the button. His wife replied 
that she was never troubled that way. Since that 
time, however, she says she never sews on a 
button but that she always hits it with the needle, 
because now she is self-conscious in her actions, 
and wonders whether or not she is going to hit the 
button. 

We appear to best advantage, and do not only 
small things better, but we do our best work, our 
greatest deeds, when wholly unconscious of our- 
selves. Whenever we think toq much of our- 
selves, we are always, so to speak, hitting the 
button. 


[ 89 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

You know the story of the centipede: 

“The centipede was happy 
Until the frog, for fun 
Cried — ‘Pray which leg moves after which ?’ 
Which wrought her soul to such a pitch 
She fell distracted in the ditch, 

Forgetting how to run.” 

The centipede was happy — until she became 
self-conscious. 

I once knew a bashful girl who would blush 
excessively if attention was called to her, or if 
anyone looked at her when she was trying to say 
something at table or anywhere else. She said 
that if she hesitated an instant for a word imme- 
diately the thought would come to her, “I am go- 
ing to blush, I am going to blush, I know I am 
going to blush.” And of course she blushed, be- 
cause the fear thought paralyzed the little nerves 
surrounding the facial blood vessels, thus admit- 
ting a rush of blood to the face. 

Blushing is a graphic illustration of the tre- 
mendous power of the mind over the body. Just 
a little thought of fear paralyzes the tiny nerves 
in the blood vessels in the face. Why doesn’t it 
paralyze the nerves in the feet? Because they are 
not exposed and we are not conscious of therm 
The fear of blushing localizes the paralysis of 
these tiny nerves surrounding the blood vessels in 
the face. The blood vessels then enlarge and an 
extra supply of blood rushes in. 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


This embarrassing habit of blushing at every 
trifling thing is a great hindrance to sensitive peo- 
ple, who are afraid to make a remark, or to have 
one addressed to them lest the blood rush to their 
faces, to their great annoyance and confusion. But 
as it is caused by a mere thought, it can also be 
cured by thought. 

I recall an instance of a girl who was so mor- 
bidly self-conscious, and so distrustful of herself 
that she blushed furiously whenever attention was 
called to her, especially when her name was men- 
tioned in connection with any young man, or even 
when their names were not linked together. Once 
at the mention of a young man who was connected 
with a scandal she blushed and looked so embar- 
rassed that it aroused the suspicion of her mother, 
who noticed that every time this man’s name was 
mentioned she would blush and seem confused. 
The mother finally became so uneasy about the 
matter and suspicious of her daughter that it led 
to a very uncomfortable situation and caused the 
girl no end of suffering. For a long time she lived 
in mortal fear that some one of the family would 
mention this young man’s name in connection with 
herself, and it so wrought upon her nervous sys- 
tem that her health became impaired. 

After months of suffering the girl could stand 
it no longer and decided to consult a psychologist, 
who made a specialty of abnormal nervous condi- 
tions. He soon helped his patient to overcome 

1 91 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

her habit of blushing by frequently repeating this 
man’s name, especially at unexpected moments 
when they were talking of something else, until 
she became so accustomed to it that she would no 
longer blush or feel embarrassed on hearing it. 

Parents and teachers could very easily help 
children to overcome the tendency to shyness while 
the mind is plastic and responsive to influence and 
advice. Instead of emphasizing his weakness by 
calling attention to it make a child believe in him- ' 
self. Convince him that there is something splen- 
did in him, and that he must not be afraid of peo- 
ple, that they are not watching him, and care very 
little about what he does or says, or how he ap- 
pears. Encourage him to mix with other children 
and to join in their games, to answer people 
frankly and fearlessly when spoken to, and always 
to be as natural as possible wherever he is. Im- 
press upon him that the people he meets outside are 
as friendly to him as those in his own home, and 
that he may be just as free in speaking to them as 
to his own father and mother. In this way the 
child may be completely cured of any tendency to 
shyness or self-effacing timidity. 

Many well-meaning parents oftentimes inno- 
cently confirm and strengthen these unfortunate 
weaknesses in their children by lack of tact, or of 
knowledge of the right method to pursue. The 
career of many a boy is being very seriously crip- 
pled by a severe father who constantly reminds 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


him of his bashfulness, or “stupidity,” as he calls 
it, and scolds him for it. I have seen a father 
severely whip his boy because he was afraid to 
meet people, and because he was so awkward and 
timid in the presence of strangers. This is fatal to 
a child’s self-confidence, and to h'is self-respect, 
both of which are very precious to every human 
being. Kill a boy’s self-confidence and you have 
pretty nearly ruined his career at the start. He 
must believe in himself or he never will try to 
make anything of himself. 

Timid, self-conscious children should never be 
harshly rebuffed, should never be scolded for, or 
reminded of, their defect, especially in the pres- 
ence of others. On the contrary, they should be 
encouraged in every possible “way to believe in 
themselves, to think well of themselves. 

If all parents realized that the cultivation of 
confidence, self-assurance, aggressiveness, courage 
in a child inclined to be timid may make all the dif- 
ference to his future between a dismal failure and 
a glorious success, to say nothing of the awful 
suffering which the timid, sensitive person endures, 
there would be more happy and successful people 
in the world. But many of those from whom we 
expect more intelligence pay no attention to these 
things, or, rather, do the very opposite. 

Not long ago I was in a family where there was 
an extremely sensitive, timid boy, and the mother 
kept reminding guests in his presence what a shy 
[ 93 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY' OR 

little fellow he was. The child would blush at 
every reference to himself, and of course after 
such an experience he could not be natural. Every- 
body had been notified of his timidity, *and would 
be looking for its expression, and, naturally, his 
self-consciousness was increased. 

Now, if the mother, instead of embarrassing 
her son, had tried to call him out in ways which 
would not attract attention to his weakness it 
would have helped him. A little praise *and ap- 
preciation, a little encouragement to express him- 
self freely and naturally before strangers, would 
have been a great help in developing his self-confi- 
dence and strengthening his weak point. But in- 
stead, she did the very worst thing she could 'have 
done. It would be like calling the attention of 
guests to a girl’s deformity, something which she 
was trying to hide from .public gaze. It is a 
wicked, a cruel thing to call the .attention of other 
people to the very quality which one is so sensitive 
about or to reprimand a child in the presence of 
others for such a weakness. 

Never snub a timid child, and be careful not to 
represss him or to do anything to make him think 
less of himself or to mar his .self-confidence. A 
child, especially a sensitive one, should never be 
humiliated in the presence of others. It is very 
easy to spoil a sensitive child’s young life, and per- 
haps handicap him for life through ignorance of 
right methods of training. 

[ 94 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


I know a young girl who had been reminded 
so often from infancy of her ugly features and 
awkward, bashful manner that she became con- 
vinced that she could never amount to anything. 
She felt she never could make herself attractive, 
and like the Japanese youth referred to, she held 
herself aloof as far as possible from others until 
she had grown almost to womanhood. She had 
become so despondent about herself that she re- 
fused to continue at school or to try to improve 
herself in any way. What was the use, she thought 
bitterly. She could not make herself attractive, 
could not interest people; no one wanted her, and 
she might as well resign herself to her fate. She 
was in this hopeless frame of mind when she came 
across a book along New Thought lines, which 
suggested to her that she could overcome her 
handicaps by cultivating her mind and making her- 
self mentally so attractive that people would for- 
get her plain face and unprepossessing appearance. 

The girl had naturally strong social qualities 
which she had never developed, simply because of 
her conviction that her defects of person and man- 
ner would practically ruin her future, and that she 
was destined to be a nobody and unhappy. But 
the possibilities opened to her by the New Thought 
philosophy filled her with a new sense of hope and 
courage she had never before experienced. She 
began immediately in a dead-in-earnest way to im- 
prove her mind by reading and study. She took 
[ 95 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 


more care with her dress and general appearance. 
She resolved to make people like her, to make her- 
self agreeable and popular with all sorts and con- 
ditions of people by being bright and sunny, by 
talking freely with anyone she met as if she were 
in the family circle. She held her head high, and 
tried to forget her plain features, and gradually 
things changed. Instead of being a wallflower as 
she had been so long, she became the most popular 
young woman in her neighborhood. Wherever 
she appeared in social .gatherings there was always 
a group of people about her because she was so in- 
teresting. 

She never seemed to think of herself, but was 
constantly on the lookout for a chance to help 
others, to say a kind encouraging word, to help 
somebody who appeared to suffer from the same 
sort of awkwardness and -shyness that had caused 
her so much suffering in her childhood and early 
girlhood. In short, this young woman made her- 
self over by the practice of New Thought. 

If you *are held back by an embarrassing self- 
consciousness which mortifies and hinders you at 
every point you may do the same. If you find you 
are inclined to be timid, if you lack courage and 
initiative, if you are too bashful to speak or ex- 
press your opinion anywhere; if you blush, and 
stammer, and are .awkward in company, you can 
overcome your defects and build up the qualities 
you lack by training your subjective self to be 
[ 96 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


courageous, unembarrassed, at your ease in any 
surroundings. Constantly suggest courage and 
heroism to this inner self. Stoutly deny that you 
are timid, cowardly, afraid to speak or to be nat- 
ural in public or before strangers. Assert that you 
are brave, that you are not afraid to do anything 
that it is right and proper you should do. 

Practice walking about among your fellows as 
though you were brave and self-confident, per- 
fectly sure of yourself, as capable of carrying on a 
conversation creditably, or entering a room grace- 
fully as you are of discharging your daily duties. 

If you are cursed with self-depreciation, which 
is a crime; if you are inclined to efface yourself, just 
imagine that you are a Roosevelt, for instance, 
or some one who has sublime confidence in himself, 
a powerful self-assurance, some one whom no sit- 
uation fazes; who acts fearlessly and without em- 
barrassment on all occasions. Walk about the 
streets with the feeling that you are playing the 
part of such a man, with head up, straightforward 
look, and courageous bearing. Think of yourself 
as a person of importance in your community, one 
who is looked up to, whose opinion is valued, and 
who will always get attention, a respectful hearing. 

If you are ambitious to become a singer, a public 
speaker, or something else demanding a great deal 
of poise and self-confidence, but are too timid 
to assert yourself, too timid to push your way be- 
fore the public, practice impersonating some one 
[ 97 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


who comes nearest your ideal of a great singer or 
orator, or whatever else you wish to be. 

I know a music teacher who cures his scholars 
of shyness and self-depreciation in this way. He 
tells them to stand daily before a mirror and talk 
to themselves something like this: “I am Caruso 
(or Nordica), the great singer. I am going to 
show the world that I have unusual talent. I was 
born to sing, and I shall not allow a miserable diffi- 
dence, a cowardly fear of standing up before a 
number of people just like myself, to strangle my 
talent and rob me of my birthright.” 

People who are always sneaking in and taking 
a back seat in every situation in life are never lead- 
ers. If you would succeed, you must develop the 
qualities of leadership, and you never can do this 
if you always stay in the background. 

The world will take you at your own estimate, 
and if it always sees you in the rear it will take it 
for granted that you belong there, that you are 
there because you haven’t the ability to push to the 
front. You must push yourself if you expect to 
get to the front, for nobody will pull you forward. 

Why not sit down by yourself and take account 
of the things you are missing, the doors that are 
closed to you, the things you are barred from be- 
cause of your timidity, your hindering bashful- 
ness? Try it, and then have a good heart-to-heart 
talk with yourself. Say, “I don’t propose to make 
a daub of what the Creator intended for a master- 
[ 98 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


piece just because of this sensitiveness, which I 
have been encouraging all these years. I am go- 
ing to overcome it. I am going to push to the 
front, I am going to force myself into the van, no 
matter how it pains me, no matter if I do seem 
forward and bold. I know that it is the only 
remedy for my defect. I am going to show people 
that I am not the failure, the nobody, the defec- 
tive, deficient person they take me for. I am go- 
ing to show them that I have qualities which will 
force me to the front. 

“I know that the other half of myself has been 
waiting for me, waiting in the background all these 
years, waiting to help me; half or more than half 
of my ability has been waiting to be discovered, 
to be brought out and used. Now I am going to 
bring it out, I am going to call out my reserves, 
I have kept in the background long enough. I am 
going to battle for freedom, for victory over my 
weakness. I shall not allow one little weak link in 
my ability chain to thwart my ambition, to ruin 
my career. I don’t propose to go through the 
world with the reputation of being ‘a weakling,’ 
‘a timid, sensitive fool.’ I don’t care how it hurts 
me, I am going to push my way to the front, I am 
going to assert myself. Hereafter I shall never 
shrink from any situation, any responsibility 
which will tend to call me out, which will force 
me to use my ability. I am going to stand for 
something in my community. I have been a shy, 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


timid, sensitive nonentity long enough. Now I am 
done with the whole business. It has hampered 
my career long enough. I am a different person, 
and hereafter my friends will see the difference. 
They will no longer find me hanging around the 
outskirts of things, taking a back seat. They will 
find me at the front. I don’t care what people 
think of me. That shall no longer affect my con- 
duct. I shall henceforth live my own life in my 
own way. I am going to step out of the crowd and 
do my own thinking, and if people don’t like it I 
don’t care. I am supported and upheld by the 
Power that has made, and that sustains, all things. 
In Him I live and move and have my being, and 
the more I rely on Him the stronger I am, the 
freer from timidity and self-consciousness. I am 
what I am — strong, free, courageous, unfettered 
by any weakness. I am God’s child. I partake of 
His strength. I am one with Him, and therefore 
qualified to carry myself with grace and dignity 
in any and every situation.” 

A young man of great ability, who had suffered 
for years, up to the time he was graduated from 
college, from the most intense shyness, rid himself 
of it by heart-to-heart talks of this sort. He was 
so thin-skinned, so sensitive, so timid and self-con- 
scious that he was never at ease, never himself in 
the presence of strangers or those who did not 
know him well. He dared not get up to speak 
or take part in a debate; recitations were torture 
[ IOO ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


to him ; he could not meet or speak to a girl with- 
out blushing and stammering and making himself 
ridiculous; and at table I have seen him overturn 
his soup or coffee in his lap or on the table cloth, 
and make all sorts of foolish, awkward slips and 
blunders just because of his supersensitiveness and 
timidity. 

This young man is now in a prominent position 
which he never could have filled had he not made 
up his mind to get rid of his weakness, which at 
one time had threatened to bury his splendid abil- 
ity and make his fine natural qualities of no avail, 
so far as material matters were concerned. 

The great trouble with most sensitive, timid 
people is that they are victims of what we might 
call “a feeling of separateness.” They seem to re- 
gard themselves as separate units, without any real 
vital connection with the great Source of their be- 
ing. Although they may have a vague sort of idea 
that they are made in God’s image, yet they do not 
have- an abiding sense of their inseparableness 
from Him, of the strength that is theirs if they 
only claim and use it. That is, they minimize the 
God in them, their divine qualities and attributes. 
They act as if they were not conscious of their 
unity with Him, as if they thought their strength 
came from outside, that it is something put into 
them rather than a living, throbbing connection 
with their Maker. 

When these people are convinced of their abso- 
[ ioi ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


lute inseparableness from their Creator ; when they 
realize that divine power, Omnipotence, is flowing 
through them, is throbbing in every atom of their 
being, and that they cannot possibly be separated 
or cut off from this perpetual inflow of divinity, 
they immediately look at themselves in a very dif- 
ferent way. They take on new courage, new con- 
fidence; they have a new estimate of their power 
and dignity. A sense of inferiority or humiliating 
weakness cannot exist in its presence. If you fill 
your soul with the thought of your oneness with 
God it will be impossible for you to be timid or 
bashful. 

This is why I recommend the constant affirma- 
tion of our oneness with the One as the surest 
remedy for all timidity and shyness, for defects 
of every kind. It is the God in us, the divine 
quality of our being that gives us courage, confi- 
dence, assurance; that gives us initiative, faith, 
power to back up our ability. It means that the 
Creator endows us with His strength and that we 
should make good as kings or gods in the making, 
and not go about as underlings, deficient weak- 
lings, mediocrities, nobodies. 

When timid, bashful, retiring men and women 
claim their kingship with the Supreme Being they 
feel reinforced, buttressed with a mysterious in- 
ward feeling of peace, of harmony, a sense that 
they are not doing their work alone, but that they 
have tapped illimitable power. They no longer 
[ 102 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


feel that they are separate units, puppets to be 
tossed about by cruel fate with simply a gambling 
chance at life instead of certainty. All fear van- 
ishes, and they become poised, natural, indepen- 
dent, masters of themselves, partakers of infinite 
power. 

This one thought that God is all, and that we 
are one with Him, will antidote, neutralize every 
weakness, will drive out forever the timidity bogy. 
Bearing this in mind, one cannot be the victim of 
a foolish bashfulness. It would be treason against 
the Creator, a belittling of the Power that made us. 


1 103 1 


TO BE GREAT 
CONCENTRATE 


This one thing I do . — Saint Paul. 

“He who would do some great thing in this short life must 
apply himself to the work with such a concentration of 
forces, as, to idle spectators, who live only to amuse them- 
selves, looks like insanity.” 

Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life 
faithfully and singly toward a thing and in no measure ob- 
tain it? — Thoreau. 

The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one, 

May hope to achieve it before life is done. 

Owen Meredith . 

S AID Carlyle, “The weakest living creature, 
by concentrating on a single object, can ac- 
complish something; whereas, the strongest, 
by dispersing his over many, may fail to accom- 
plish anything.” 

All men who have accomplished great things 
have been men of one unwavering aim; men who 
have sacrificed all conflicting desires and ambitions 
to that one aim. 

Ours is essentially an age of specialized, inten- 
sive, purposeful action. The man who succeeds 
in any walk of life to-day is the man who says, 
“This one thing I do,” and lives by it. This does 
not mean the narrow, one-sided man, the man 
[ 104 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


whose mind is capable of but one idea, but “the 
broad man sharpened to a fine point,” the many 
facetted mentality concentrated upon a single 
object. 

The world will make way for any man who 
knows his goal. The secret of achievement is in 
the focusing of one’s powers, in the bringing the 
whole man to the day’s work, to his life purpose. 
Everything worth doing in this world is reached 
by the road of concentration, and by no other. 
The efficient life is the concentrated life — the life 
of focused energy, dominated and directed by a 
single aim. 

Whatever other qualities he may lack, what- 
ever weaknesses he may have, there is one quality 
that is always present in the man who achieves, and 
that is, the ability to concentrate his mind, to focus 
his faculties with force and vigor upon one definite 
aim. A man may lack many important qualities, 
and yet be successful on the whole if he has this 
one quality of mental intensity, the ability to cen- 
tralize all his brain power, all his energy upon one 
thing. This is the force that executes, this is the 
force that “does things.” 

An elephant can pick up a pin or uproot a tree 
with his trunk. The energy and force and power 
of attention throughout its whole huge body can be 
concentrated and specialized to manipulate the 
finest point. 

One talent concentrated will do infinitely more 
[ 105 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

than ten talents scattered. Concentration is the 
secret of all great execution in explosives. As a 
thimbleful of powder behind a ball in a rifle will 
do far more execution than a cartload of powder 
scattered loose, so the poorest scholar in school or 
college often far outstrips the class leader in prac- 
tical life, simply because what little ability he has 
he brings to a focus in one unwavering aim, while 
the other who depends upon his great ability and 
brilliant prospects, fails because he does not con- 
centrate his forces into a definite aim. 

All our eminent discoverers and inventors, in- 
deed, all the red-letter men the world has known, 
have owed their world distinction more to this one 
faculty of intense concentration upon one unwaver- 
ing aim than to anything else. 

This was the secret of Napoleon’s power, a 
large part of his “genius” consisted in his tremen- 
dous power to focus on a single point just as he 
massed all his forces on the weak point of the 
enemy. His successes on the field were in large 
part due to this policy of tremendous concentration 
on the point of attack, hurling squadron after 
squadron in overwhelming numbers until the point 
of opposition was literally swept out of existence. 
As in everything else, once his resolution was fixed, 
all beside was forgotten, and nothing could turn 
him from his aim. 

The same thing is true of all the great leaders 
of men. Having once arrived at a decision during 
£ 106 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


the Civil War, nothing could turn General Grant 
from his purpose. He was determined to fight it 
out on the line selected. It did not matter to him 
that he was severely criticised in Washington and 
by other generals of the army. His purpose was 
fixed and no power could deflect him from it. 

What a great directness of purpose may be 
traced in the career of William Pitt, the younger, 
who lived — ay, and died — for the sake of politi- 
cal supremacy ! When a child, the idea was drilled 
into him that he must achieve a public career 
worthy of his illustrious father. Even from boy- 
hood he bent all his energy to this one great pur- 
pose. He went straight from college to the House 
of Commons. In one year he was Chancellor of 
the Exchequer; two years later he was Prime Min- 
ister of England, and reigned virtually king for a 
quarter of a century. He was utterly oblivious of 
everything outside his aim ; insensible to the claims 
of love, art, and literature, living and steadily 
working for the sole purpose of wielding the gov- 
erning power of the nation. 

When the Jews were so despised in England 
that it was almost impossible for one of them to 
rise to any position or prominence, young Benja- 
min Disraeli determined that he would become a 
leader in the English parliament. He said, “There 
is no pain I would not endure, no anguish, no 
amount of sleepless nights and long days of effort 
if I could but reach this position.” There was lit- 
[ 107 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


erally no price he was not willing to pay, no sacri- 
fice he was not willing to make, to reach his goal. 

All the insults against his race, all the personal 
abuse, cruel taunts of members of parliament, all 
the ridicule, the derision of those in high places, 
could not down that young man’s ambition or alter 
his determination to be a leader of the English 
people. 

Being hissed from the platform on his first ap- 
pearance in parliament did not faze him in the 
least. He simply said: “Gentlemen, the time will 
come when you will hear me.” 

It was only the singleness of aim, the one high, 
unwavering purpose, backed by tremendous grit, 
self-confidence and almost superhuman nerve, that 
supported him during the distressing years when 
he was climbing to power. But the great Earl of 
Beaconsfield, Premier of England, favorite of his 
sovereign, peer of Gladstone, could well be proud 
of the triumph of the despised young Jew. 

Victor Hugo wrote his “Notre Dame” during 
the revolution of 1830, while the bullets were 
whistling across his garden. He shut himself in 
one room, locking up his clothes lest he should be 
tempted to go out into the street, and spent most 
of that winter wrapped in a big gray comforter, 
pouring his very life into his work. 

Realizing the necessity of concentrating on some 
important musical work, the celebrated pianist and 
composer, Leopold Godowsky, suddenly disap- 
[ 108 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


peared, not long ago, from family and friends. 
Having left a letter for his wife explaining, as he 
believed, his desire to work uninterruptedly, away 
from callers and other distractions, he went to a 
nearby city, and for days secluded himself in his 
room. He did not even see a newspaper, so was 
ignorant of the distress his self-imposed exile was 
causing those dear to him, who had not found his 
letter. 

It is said that when Hazlitt began his day’s 
work, he would stick a little red wafer on his fore- 
head, and no one dared interrupt him when that 
sign was in place. It was a signal of danger to all 
intruders. His housekeeper did not venture to 
speak to him, even if a prince called to see him. 

Nothing can take the place of concentrated 
energy. Education will not, genius will not, talent 
will not, industry will not, will-power will not. 

The man who succeeds fixes his course and ad- 
heres to it. He lays his plans and executes them. 
He goes straight to his goal. Many a man who 
has failed would have succeeded had he concen- 
trated his fragmentary and fitful efforts upon a sin- 
gle thing. It is a great purpose which gives mean- 
ing to life; it unifies all our powers, binds them to- 
gether in one great cable ; makes strong and united 
what before was weak and scattered. 

The successful gardener cuts off a great number 
of promising buds, and trims off many healthy 
branches, which, at the time, seems a great sacri- 
[ 109 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

fice; but he knows that the future welfare of the 
tree or plant demands this apparent waste. Ex- 
perience has taught him that the tree that is never 
pruned produces small and inferior fruit, because 
the sap which would have developed large and 
luscious clusters upon a few branches has not been 
sufficient to nourish many. 

The chrysanthemum, unattended, spreads out a 
straggling, scrubby plant bearing a great number 
of small flowers, noted neither for beauty nor for 
fragrance, but when pruned and cultivated to its 
fullest capacity, — as, for instance, the Japanese 
variety, — it yields, perhaps, not more than one or 
two blossoms on each plant, but these outdistance 
in beauty and size anything that would have been 
possible without this close, relentless pruning. 

If a man or woman would attain to excel- 
lence in one direction, the pruning knife must 
be applied relentlessly, not only to all shoots of vice 
and slothfulness, all downward tendencies, but to 
secure the fullest expression in the one desired 
line, even good and promising branches must be 
sacrificed. 

“We often fail clearly to realize what an im- 
mense power over the life is the power of possess- 
ing distinct aims. The voice, the dress, the look, 
the very motions of a person, define and alter when 
he or she begins to live for a reason.” There is 
the added dignity of bearing that comes with the 
knowledge that one has found one’s work. 

[ii o ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Before everything else, the man who is ever go- 
ing to amount to anything in this world has got to 
take a firm and decisive stand as to his course in 
life and to resolve not to allow anything that is 
humanly possible of prevention to distract him so 
that he cannot concentrate with all his power and 
fling the weight of his whole being into his life- 
work. 

The world has ever made way for the man who 
has an idea and who sticks to it with a tenacity of 
purpose from which nothing can move him. When 
a man’s life-purpose is so ingrained in the very 
texture of his being that you can’t get him away 
from it without killing him, without taking his life 
with his purpose, you perforce stand in awe of his 
focused power. There is nothing to do but to 
stand aside and give him right of way; his very 
devotion, his concentration of purpose, increases 
your confidence in him. 

What a sublime spectacle it is to see a man go- 
ing straight to his goal, cutting his way through 
difficulties and surmounting obstacles which dis- 
hearten others, as though they were but stepping- 
stones ! Defeat, like gymnasium practice, only 
gives him new power; opposition only doubles his 
exertions; dangers only increase his courage. No 
matter what comes to him, — sickness, poverty, dis- 
aster, — he never turns his eye from his goal. 

Ex-President Eliot says that the distinctive char- 
acteristic of the college man should be that he is 

[ in ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

capable of intense, rapid, sustained thought. The 
great trouble with many of us is we were not 
taught as children to concentrate the mind. Too 
great emphasis in school and college has been 
placed upon remembering things, absorbing knowl- 
edge, instead of focusing the faculties in originat- 
ing, in inventing things which call out resourceful- 
ness and ingenuity. This is what develops the 
mental faculties. It is not enough to educate each 
faculty separately; we must know how to combine 
their forces, to focus them with power upon one 
thing, continuously. If the young people of to- 
day were only taught the art of focusing their 
minds, of concentrating their ability with inten- 
sity, continuity, and power, society would soon 
be revolutionized. 

Without this power to focus vigorously, and 
with tenacity, a man will never win out, because 
this is the only mental force that can achieve. 

Some men can accomplish more in an hour of 
intense mental concentration than others of phleg- 
matic temperament, whose mental processes are 
slow and deliberate, can achieve in a whole day’s 
effort. There are some men in New York who do 
not spend over two or three hours a day in their 
offices, yet who put through more business, who 
accomplish more than many other men who work 
overtime, because they know the secret of intense , 
sustained concentration. 

If you look about you in any walk of life, you 

[ ”2 J 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


will find that a man with a powerful, executive 
brain, a man who works with intensity, who drives 
at the very heart of things, can accomplish more 
by a few decisive acts than others who potter 
around all day long, just as some artists will make 
a better portrait with a few bold strokes than 
others who would spend weeks working in minute, 
fussy detail. 

One reason why so many people accomplish so 
little, is because they do not concentrate and fling 
their very lives into their work ; they are only half 
there. Part of them is somewhere else, dreaming, 
castle-building; their minds are miles away from 
the thing at hand, like a person playing the piano 
mechanically, and thinking of something else. 

How many of us scatter our fire, scatter our 
forces! Those people actually fail through scat- 
teration, lack of vigorous concentration upon one 
thing, than almost any other cause. It is con- 
centration that always counts and nothing else 
avails without it. It is the mental planning, the 
persistent mental imaging of the thing we are try- 
ing to do, the visualizing of it, that finally material- 
izes it, brings it into being. 

It is a great thing mentally to live our achieve- 
ment beforehand, mentally to picture conditions 
we would like to realize. Think of your desired 
achievement as a reality, for in concentrating upon 
it and carrying ourselves with great dignity and 
forcefulness as though we were actually already 
[ II3 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

bearing the responsibility we crave, we bring it 
definitely nearer to realization. 

If you wish to be a person of force, form the 
habit of flinging yourself into everything you un- 
dertake with all your might. In doing this you 
will not waste energy, but, on the contrary, will 
actually conserve it. If you do one thing at a time 
and bring all of yourself to the doing, cutting off 
everything else, all worry, all anxiety, all fear, all 
thought of the past or of the future, you will soon 
have the reputation of being a man or woman of 
force; and that sort of an individual is wanted 
everywhere. 

“Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might.” In other words, concentrate. Be all 
there. 

There is power enough in the sunbeams which 
fall upon a very small surface to melt a diamond, 
the hardest of all known substances, if only they 
were focused; but unfocused, they cannot injure 
the most delicate blossom — they have no power 
to harm the most combustible and most susceptible 
material. 

So it is with many who are failures, or who at- 
tain only very mediocre success. They have 
worked hard enough to achieve splendid results 
if only their efforts had been concentrated in a 
single line. Instead, they have worked a little at 
this and a little at that ; they have been something 
of a manufacturer, something of a merchant, have 

[ in ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


done some trading, have dabbled in real estate, have 
been director in this and director in that, and so 
have split themselves up into such small pieces that 
they have not been really effective in any one thing. 

It is lack of concentration that causes so many 
men of real ability to achieve only a litle picayune 
success. They are trying to carry along several 
different kinds of businesses which are constantly 
scattering their attention and diverting their energy 
from the main issue. Many a man has been ruined 
by his “side lines,” by trying to “make a little 
money on the side,” because he does not know the 
tremendous force in concentrating upon a single 
aim. 

“To be great concentrate.” 

There is a trinity of factors in every great suc- 
cess — self-reliance, persistence, concentration — but 
the greatest of these is — concentration . 


[ 11 S T 


MAKE TO-DAY A RED- 
LETTER DAY 

“To-day is the Day." 

“Don’t brood over the past or dream of the future, but 
seize the instant and get your lesson from the hour.” 

“This day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin.” 

W HEN some one asked the great sculptor 
Ward the name of his best work, his mas- 
terpiece, he said, “My next” The only 
way to make life a masterpiece is to make every 
day the best; to make each one an advance upon 
the previous day. 

The great masters who made their reputations 
by their wonderful mosaics and stained glass were 
extremely careful in the selection of the individual 
bits of marble or of glass which went into the par- 
ticular thing they were fashioning. Every one 
had to be perfect, and no labor was too great to 
make it so. Suppose they had not taken infinite 
pains, and merely picked up pieces of material 
wherever they could find them, with little regard 
to their fitness, their shape or coloring, without any 
special effort to make them harmonize with their 
[ ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


great design, where would have been the master- 
pieces; what have been the reputations of the 
workers ? 

Time is the material with which we are work- 
ing, and if we put into our life pattern each year 
many inferior pieces will it be a perfect mosaic? 
Will' it look like a masterpiece ? 

Time is so precious that it is dealt to us only 
in the smallest possible fractions, a tiny moment 
at a time. We can not live again a moment that 
has just passed, nor can we live in the moment that 
is to come. Just while the pendulum is swinging 
through the present instant — this is the only time 
we are sure of, the only time in which to do our 
thinking, our working. Why should we not make 
this a perfect moment, and instead of being indif- 
ferent to it, extract from it all its possibilities? 
Why should we lose it altogether in dreaming of 
the future or regretting the past? 

The great majority of people who have reached 
middle age have not found life anything like what 
they expected. The mirage of youth, they will 
tell you, led them on only to disappoint their hopes. 
I believe their disappointment is largely due to the 
fact that they never learned the art of getting the 
most out of each day as they went along. 

The trouble with most of us is that we look 
forward too far or we look backward. We don’t 
understand our privileges and avail ourselves of 
them as they are given us. What wonderful things 

[ 117 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

we could all accomplish if we would only fling our- 
selves with all our might and main into the passing 
moment ! Here is the source of all effectiveness, all 
efficiency, all character building', all happiness. 

“Some day” is not on the calendar. “By and 
by” is not on the calendar. “Next week,” “next 
year” are not on the calendar. “Yesterday,” “last 
week,” “last year” are not written there. To-day 
is the only thing that is, or ever will be on the 
Calendar of Time for any of us. The past has 
ceased to exist and the future is not here. We live 
in one perpetual Now. 

If we could only realize that yesterday is done 
with and that to-day is everything, that all the suc- 
cess which will ever be ours must come from the 
to-days, from the right use of the instant we are 
passing through, our lives would not be so starved, 
so lean and unfruitful. 

Do you ever realize that you are now actually 
living the life which looked so rosy and radiant 
with promise in your childhood and youth? Do 
you recognize in the days and weeks as they slip 
by that iridescent dream of the future, which then 
enchanted your youthful fancy, as a mirage in a 
desert charms the senses of the weary traveler? 
Do you ever stop to think that the time you are 
now denouncing and trying to kill is the very time 
you once looked forward to so eagerly, and which 
then seemed so precious; that the moments which 
now hang so heavily on your hands are the same 

[ 118 ] 


G&TTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


that you then determined should never slip from 
your grasp until you had extracted from them 
their fullest possibilities? 

“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end 
in every step of the road, to live the greatest num- 
ber of good hours is wisdom.” This is the only 
philosophy by which we can make life yield its 
utmost. To live in the day, not in yesterday, or in 
to-morrow is the only way in which we can attain 
success and happiness. 

No matter how you may have failed in the past, 
nor how many defeats you may have suffered, you 
know that you can, if you choose, make one single 
day a success. If you just set your mind to it, 
and firmly resolve that you will, you know you 
can make one day a splendid victory. 

If you should make up your mind that for one 
day you would not fret or worry, that you would 
not lose your temper, your mental poise, that what- 
ever happened you would keep your peace of mind, 
that you would make every moment count, that 
you would do nothing in a sloppy, slovenly, slip- 
shod manner, you know that you could make a 
tremendous advance upon the previous day. 

If you can do this for one day, you can do it for 
two days, and every day’s triumph will add to your 
strength to win out the next day. Each succeeding 
day’s victory will become easier and easier, until 
you have formed the habit of making life a success 
as you go. There is no other way to make the 

[ 119 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

whole of life a success but to make every day a 
success. 

“Our cares are all To-day, our joys are 
all To-day: 

And in one little word, our life, what is 
it but — To-day?” 

Most of us have a sort of indefinite idea that we 
live more than a day at a time ; that we are living 
all along through the past, the present, and the 
future. But of course this is impossible. We are 
living only in the passing instant. In that is our 
destiny. Our success or failure depends upon what 
comes to us through the gateway of the moment, 
and that we determine ourselves. 

Each morning, king and peasant alike are given 
a new phonographic record. We can write what 
we will on it, but for whatever we write we shall 
be responsible. On the new record will be stamped 
all of our thoughts, our motives, our ambitions, 
our hopes, our desires, and every act of the day. 
Whatever we write on it is indelible, and will be 
faithfully reproduced in our lives, will become a 
part of our character. We can put on this rec- 
ord the song that will cheer, the poem that will 
bless every one who hears it later. We can record 
words of love, appreciation, praise, gratitude, 
words that will inspire a multitude of people, or we 
can record our hatreds, our revenges, our jeal- 
ousies. We can stamp on it good deeds or bad, 
[ 120 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


work that will be a link in the chain of our advance- 
ment, or work that will put us farther behind than 
we were yesterday. Whatever we put into our 
daily record will be reproduced in our lives a mul- 
titude of times to give us satisfaction and joy or 
regret, remorse, and self-condemnation. 

A remarkably successful friend of mine says 
that he starts out every morning with the deter- 
mination that he *is going to be a bigger man at 
night than he was in the morning; that he is going 
to stand for more and to be more than he was the 
previous day. 

The mental attitude with which we face the day 
will determine whether the day shall be a red-letter 
or a black-letter one. You will meet the sort of 
things during the day which will correspond to the 
mood which you took out with you i-n the morning 
and preserved during the day. The sort of .people 
you meet will be very much like the man or woman 
you resolve to be in the morning. Your experiences 
will correspond with your mental attitude. 
Whether you do a good day’s work or a bad day’s 
work will depend upon the sort of a day you carry 
with you in your mind. 

There is everything in starting right in the morn- 
ing and right away. And the best way to do this 
is just to resolve when you awake that this day 
shall be one perpetual triumph, that there shall be 
no trace of defeat in it, that you will take no back 
tracks, that you will move progressively, persist- 
[ 1 2 1 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


ently, and energetically toward the goal of your 
ambition. 

While you are dressing and before you plunge 
into your work put yourself in tune with your high- 
est ideals, think of the things which you would like 
to have come true during the day. Hold persist- 
ently in your mind the thoughts, the hopes, the 
expectations, the desires which are in keeping with 
your aspirations and your ambition. Think only 
of those things which will help you to be the man 
or the woman you long to be, to do the things 
you are ambitious to do. 

Dwell on the great virtues of courage, hope, and 
love, and practise them. Resolve that you will 
put beauty into your life during the day, and that 
you will not allow sordid, selfish ambition and 
grasping greed to absorb all of your energies. Do 
not allow any thought of physical weakness or dis- 
ease to enter your mind. Think of yourself as 
strong, vigorous, able to perform a magnificent 
day’s work. Think health thoughts, joy thoughts, 
efficiency thoughts, success thoughts, and do not 
allow the opposite of these to come into your mind. 

Say to yourself, out loud if alone, something like 
this : “I am determined to have harmony in my life 
all day. Love and peace are going to flood my 
being. Discord shall not enter my soul. I am 
not going to think of the disagreeable, of 
the things which have caused me pain and regret. 
Neither will I anticipate trouble, nor expect any 
[ 122 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

misfortune. Good things are coming to me to-day. 
I am going to make this day count. I am going 
to make it a red-letter day in my life. I am deter- 
mined that there shall not be one lost moment in 
the coming twenty-four hours. I shall not listen 
to the traitor, Doubt, which has caused me so 
much trouble in the past. I am not going to listen 
to that great human curse, Fear, nor am I going 
to give up to Worry or Anxiety for a single 
moment. 

“I am resolved to keep my life in such perfect 
harmony to-day that my physical and mental ma- 
chinery will run noiselessly and effectively. I shall 
not permit myself to think of anything but that 
which will help me to do what I am striving to do, 
help me to be what I long to be. I resolve now 
to strangle all of the enemies of these aspirations. 
I shall not allow them to enter my mind to-day or 
ever again to destroy my peace, my happiness and 
poise. I put up this sign now on the portals of 
my mental kingdom, ‘This is my busy day. I am 
not entertaining the enemies of my success and 
happiness, the enemies of my peace of mind to-day. 
I am too dead-in-earnest to listen to anything which 
cannot help me along the line of my highest wel- 
fare.’ ” 

No matter how forced or mechanical these auto- 
suggestions may be at first, they will make an 
impression on your mind, and after a little while it 
will be perfectly natural for you to think uplifting, 

c 123 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

beautiful, courageous, successful, hopeful thoughts. 
After a little practice it will be as easy for you to 
put your mind in tune in the morning as it will be 
to dress yourself. You will be able so to attune 
yourself to harmony and high ideals that each day 
will be one grand song of triumph. 

On the other hand, if you start out wrong in the 
morning, start out with a grudge against anyone; 
if your mind is sour and bitter, full of fear and 
anticipations of evil, your whole day is likely to 
go in the same direction. Remember that the ideals 
which you cherish in the morning, the ambitions, 
the expectations, the hopes, the desires that occupy 
your mind, will go far toward determining the 
result of the day’s work. 

“Our thoughts are tools, and the life substance 
is shaped with these tools,” says Dr. Julia Seton. 
“Every hour we can stand before our half-formed 
self and with tools a thousand times finer than 
those of the finest craftsman of the physical plane, 
we can cut, from our own thought atmosphere, 
forms of exquisite perfection, until body, environ- 
ment, friends, even our whole life, is a world pic- 
ture of peace, power, love, joy, health, and wealth, 
limitless and free.” 

The main trouble with us mortals is, that we 
regard success, as well as happiness, as a mysteri- 
ous, indefinable something that lies a long way 
ahead of us, well nigh impossible to reach. We do 
not seem to think that each day will have any very 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


great modifying influence upon the entire life, or 
the destiny as a whole. Most people seemingly 
think that their life’s achievement is a sort of pre- 
determined thing, and that if there is any success for 
them it is always in the future. It is the same with 
their happiness. Very few are happy right now, 
bait they feel confident they are soon going to get 
rid of the annoyances and inconveniences, the trou- 
bles and vexations which mar their happiness, 
bother and worry them in the present, and that 
when they do they will be happy. They do not 
realize that they never find any happiness in the 
future which they do not take to the future. 

We must carry our happiness with us or we 
never will find it, just as we must carry our success 
in our mind or we never will find it. Happiness, 
like success, is a state of mind. It does not exist in 
other people or in things. It is in ourselves that 
we are happy or miserable. Happiness is inside 
of us or it is nowhere. And we get it day by day 
as we journey through life, or we never get it. 

No day is a red-letter day if we do not get some 
happiness by the way. It is just as much our duty 
to get joy out of the day as it is to put work into 
it; just as much our duty to be happy as to be effi- 
cient. In fact, we cannot be really efficient with- 
out being happy. Happiness means efficiency, 
mental and moral harmony, harmony of the whole 
being, and harmony means efficiency. 

If we adjust ourselves to the conditions of our 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

lives, while trying to better them, to lift them up 
to a higher plane, instead of grumbling and find- 
ing fault, we have the great secret of success and 
happiness. 

I have a friend who illustrates what I mean. 
He knows how to adjust himself so perfectly to 
changing conditions that no matter how the luck 
turns or what the state of affairs, he always sees 
something encouraging in the outlook. 

In the early days of the European war, in spite 
of the initial business depression and the general 
tendency to become panicky, he was always cheer- 
ful. When I would ask him how things were going 
he would say, “Oh, splendidly. Everything is fine. 
Of course, we are not having quite our usual busi- 
ness, but the poorest of us here are so much better 
off than the poor people in the war zone, we ought 
to be ashamed to grumble. I congratulate myself 
every day of my life that I have my family and 
my home and that we are all well.” 

Then he would go on to philosophize in his 
cheerful way, “What matters it if we make a lit- 
tle less money as long as we get enough to eat, 
have comfortable clothing to wear, and a comfort- 
able place to sleep in? What more do we need? 
Health is everything, and we cannot be grateful 
enough for living in a land of peace and comfort 
and plenty, a land of liberty and opportunity. We 
have so much more to be thankful for than we 
have to complain about that it is a pretty mean 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


business to fasten our eyes on the little dark spots 
and turn our back on the bright ones.” 

I have known this man many years and in all 
this time I do not remember ever hearing him 
grumble or complain about anything, not even 
about that universal kicking post — the weather. 
No matter how bad it may be, he always finds 
something good in it. If it snows, why it is good 
for the soil. If it rains, it is needed for the grass 
and crops, and it washes the streets and the 
atmosphere. 

When you meet him, no matter how much of 
a hurry he may be in, he stops to grasp your hand 
and says, “I’m glad to see you,” in such a cordial 
tone that you know he means and feels what he 
says. I sometimes meet him in the morning on the 
train and he illuminates my whole day. This man 
faces life in the right way. He sees the glory and 
the opportunity in each day, and his cheerful, 
uplifting, optimistic attitude has much to do with 
his success and popularity. 

Another man whom I know is just the opposite 
of this cheerful soul. Only a little while ago I met 
him and said, “Mr. Blank, how are things going 
with you?” “Oh, rotten, rotten,” he replied. 
“Business is dead, absolutely dead. Nothing doing. 
Things are growing worse. The new tariff is play- 
ing havoc with our business. It is just as much as 
I can do to keep things going. We have had to 
close one factory and are likely at any time to have 
[ 127 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

the red flag up at our other factory door. Awful, 
awful! I have never seen anything like it in all 
my business experience.” 

Mr. Blank is always grumbling. The weather 
never suits him. The times are always out of 
joint. Something is continually going wrong some- 
where. He always has a hard-luck story of loss 
or misfortune. He is forever in hot water. If 
business is not going to the dogst — which it usually 
is with him — there is something the matter with 
the family. His boys are not turning out right, 
he is afraid the girls are going to marry foolishly. 
There is always something wrong somewhere, and 
his physical condition corresponds with the state 
of his mind. 

Now, this man expects trouble. He is always 
looking for it, and of course he gets it, for his men- 
tal attitude relates to the conditions he expects. 

To get the most out of the day we should start 
out in the morning with an eager spirit, full of 
hope and expectation of good things coming to us. 
A day is really a pleasant adventure, and the mere 
anticipation of the radiant possibilities it holds 
should act as a stimulus. 

To one person, no matter how gloomy the sky, 
the whole day is a poem, to another it is the blank- 
est of blank verse. The difference is in the spirit 
in which each faces it, in the color of their men- 
tal glasses. Think of the difference between what 
two people even in the same family will get out of 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


the same day! To one it is merely part of a dry, 
dreary, humdrum existence, full of monotony and 
weariness. To the other it is radiant with joy and 
gladness. He goes through it with a singing heart 
and a glad face. The mere presence of day seems 
to stimulate him. 

If we knew how to use our mental faculties prop- 
erly, we should find happiness and joy in the most 
ordinary events in the day. Every child should be 
reared to make a poem out of every day f and to 
wrest from it all its possibilities of growth and 
happiness. 

This is not only a new day, but it is a new begin- 
ning. Nature gives us three hundred and sixty -five 
new chances every year. If we botch to-day, if 
we make all sorts of slips and blunders, if we waste 
the hours, if we make mistakes, she gives us a new 
chance to-morrow morning. And before she 
launches us on the new day, she prepares us to 
take advantage of the fresh opportunities, the new 
chance it holds by putting us under the sweet anes- 
thetic of sleep, thus helping us to erase from our 
mental gallery the pictures of the previous day’s 
mistakes, which caused us regret and suffering. She 
not only gives us a clean slate by erasing a lot of 
our troubles, but she also gives us a clean bill of 
health. She makes us all over, renews and rebur- 
nishes every cell in the body, gives us new 
courage, new hope, new enthusiasm, a refreshened, 
renewed body, for a weary, fagged one. She gives 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

us a new chance at the life game under new con- 
ditions. 

What a wonderful privilege it is to get this fresh 
start every twenty- four hours; to have these rest 
cures, these sleeping cures, refreshment stations, 
where every night we can get rid of the poisons, the 
wear and tear of the day’s toil and start on the next 
stage of our journey refreshed, reheartened and 
strengthened ! We do not have to wait for our New 
Year’s resolution in order to make a fresh start. 
We do not have to wait for a month or a fortnight 
or a week for a chance to rest, to repair our human 
machines, to renew our strength and our courage, 
to brace ourselves up for a new opportunity. This 
is a daily miracle in our lives. 

No matter what our condition, each day holds 
out its privileges and opportunities to all. No one 
is richer in time than another. So far as that is 
concerned, the millionaire has no advantage over 
the day laborer. Everything depends upon what 
we do with our time. Each day is full of riches 
for the man or woman who knows how to appre- 
ciate its opportunities and privileges. 

“Write it in your heart that every day is the 
best day in the year,” said Emerson. “A day is a 
more magnificent cloth than any muslin ; the mech- 
anism that makes it is infinitely cunninger, and you 
shall not conceal the sleazy, fraudulent, rotten 
hours you have slipped into it.” 

Many people who make a fizzle of life do well 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


enough part of the time, when everything goes 
smoothly, when there is nothing to ruffle or incon- 
venience them. But on the days when they “do not 
feel like it,” their blue days, their discouraged days, 
the quality of their work drops way down, and 
their life average is very low. It is the poor slip- 
shod work we do when our standards are down, 
“the sleazy, fraudulent, rotten hours” we slip into 
our discouraged days that demoralize our ideals 
and deteriorate our characters. 

Whether we work or play, we should make it 
count for the particular thing we endeavor to do, 
and not allow ourselves to half work — to half play. 
No matter how discouraged or blue you feel, never 
allow yourself to do a poor, slovenly job or to drop 
your efficiency standards. Whatever you attempt 
to do keep the quality of your work up. Do your 
best even when you don’t feel like it. That is the 
only way to make every day a red-letter day. 

It is a very easy matter to do a good day’s work 
when you feel fine, when you are in high spirits, 
and everything goes your way; but to put in a good 
day’s work, to put quality into your job when you 
do not feel quite up to the mark, when things go 
wrong with you, that is the time that requires 
stamina. That is the test of the kind of material 
you are made of — when you can compel yourself 
to do a very critical day’s work, even if your physi- 
cal and mental standards are down. 

Does it ever occur to you that you are playing 

L 131 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

the great game of life with an antagonist, and 
that that antagonist is an old man with a scythe — 
that you are playing a game with Time? Do you 
ever think that every hour, every moment you 
waste is a false move in the game? Did you ever 
realize that when you have wasted a day , you have 
wasted a part of your life; and that you can never 
redeem it, never make good the loss, because all 
you can possibly do is to live the life of each day 
in the day. Whatever time you lose is lost forever. 

“The whole period of youth,” said Ruskin, “is 
one essentially of formation, edification, instruc- 
tion. There is not an hour of it but is trembling 
with destinies — not a moment of which, once 
passed, the appointed work can ever be done again, 
or the neglected blow struck on the cold iron. 

Youth is the time in which we can do most to 
enrich life. Every hour of youth is fraught with 
golden possibilities. Every day Nature gives all 
of us a new chance for more splendid endeavor, 
and yet how many accept a new day with its superb 
possibilities as just a repetition of the monotonous, 
uneventful days that have (gone before! How 
often do we hear people say in the morning, “Well, 
here is another day’s grind ahead of me!” And 
so it is — for them; for “as a man thinketh so is he.” 

If those people instead of growling would form 
the habit when they first rise of saying: “Now, 
this day certainly does look good to me. I antici- 
pate splendid things to-day. I am going to meet 

[ 132 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


pleasant people, and have some pleasant surprises, 
rich new experiences. I am going to make the most 
of this day, for I know that there are great possi- 
bilities locked up in it. Other men have got won- 
derful things out of a single day, and why can’t I?” 

I know an invalid lady who says that she can 
scarcely wait for the splendid things to transpire 
during the day which she anticipates when she 
wakes in the morning. She says she feels every 
morning as though she was going on a journey 
which she had never taken before, and that she 
expects all sorts of delightful surprises, of new 
and thrilling experiences. 

Now, if a day means so much to this poor, 
shut-in invalid, what should it mean to us, to those 
of us who have all our senses intact, and who are 
in good health? If a day seems so good to a 
cripple confined to the house, it certainly ought to 
mean a great deal more to those of us who can 
walk and run, who can go where we please, do 
what we please. 

It is wonderfully helpful to take a few moments 
every morning to express gratitude to our Creator 
for the wonderful gift of life itself, and for health, 
for being normal, able to see and hear and feel 
and think and do. We should be filled with grati- 
tude for the chance to unfold, to develop our won- 
derful possibilities. 

Each day is to us what the block of pure Italian 
marble is to the sculptor. We can call out of it 
[ 133 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

what we will — beauty or ugliness, angel or devil, 
or we can smite it with the mallet and shiver it 
to atoms. 

As the sun rises every soul is born again, and 
the new day gives us a chance to begin all over 
again. We can do and be what we will to do and 
be for the entire day. We can make it a red-letter 
day. This is the way of growth. And if life 
does not mean growth, enlargement to us, then we 
have missed its higher meaning. 

To-day is the day that decides your destiny, not 
yesterday and not to-morrow. To-day is the 
marble you are working on. Every thought, every 
act, every motive, is a chisel stroke with which you 
are carving something out of your life marble. 
You carve out what you see, what you build in 
your mind; you carve out the model that dwells 
there to guide your acts. 

Don’t regret the past, or dream too much of 
the future, but live in the present. Get your lesson 
from the hour. 

Remember that yesterday is dead. To-morrow 
is not yet born. The only time that belongs to you 
is the passing moment. 

No matter what happens or does not happen, 
what comes or does not come, resolve that you will 
extract from every experience of the day something 
of good, something that will make you wiser and 
show you how to make fewer mistakes to-morrow. 
Say to yourself, “This day I begin a new life. I 
[ 134 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

will forget everything in the past that caused me 
pain, grief, discouragement, or disgrace.” 

No matter what the past has been, how unfor- 
tunate, no matter what your mistakes, or what 
golden opportunities you let slip by, there is noth- 
ing in that wreckage for you now. You have got- 
ten out of it all that is now possible — the experi- 
ence which ought to give you greater wisdom, so 
that you will not make similar mistakes again. The 
only possible way in which any human being can 
get anything out of this life that is worth while is 
by forgetting the past and flinging one's very soul 
into the doing of the present duty , the thing in hand. 
Your opportunity is not in the wreckage of the 
past, but it is in the potency of the passing moment. 
Seize the instant as it passes and wring from it 
every possibility. This is the only way to make 
your life count. 


1 135 1 


CAN YOU FINANCE 
YOURSELF 

As much wisdom can be expended on private economy as 
on an empire. — Emerson. 

Beware of little extravagances. A small leak will sink a 
big ship. — Franklin. 

Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into it, 
but hard enough to get out. — Shaw. 

If you want to test a young man and ascertain whether 
nature made him for a king or a subject, give him a thousand 
dollars and see what he will do with it. — Parton. 

Whatever be your talents, whatever be your prospects, 
never speculate away on a chance of a palace that which you 
may need as a provision against the workhouse. — Bulwer. 

“The mill can never grind with the water that has passed.” 

I N AN address on “The Greater Thrift” de- 
livered before the National Education Asso- 
ciation at its last annual convention in New 
York, S. W. Strauss, President of the American 
Society for Thrift, made this statement: 

“We are teaching our boys and girls arithmetic, 
history, and geography — our agricultural schools 
are teaching them to till the soil scientifically, and 
to develop the resources of the land through edu- 
cation. We are teaching household economics. 
We are teaching morality and hygiene. We are 
teaching everything worth while but Practical 
Thrift — and I say to you, my friends, that we are 

t 136 1 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

neglecting one of the most important branches of 
education.” 

To show the consequences of our neglect, even 
among those who are more favorably placed than 
the very poor, Mr. Strauss says: “The records of 
the Surrogates’ Courts show that out of one hun- 
dred men who die, three leave estates of $10,000. 
Fifteen others leave estates from two to ten thou- 
sand dollars. Eighty-two of every one hundred 
leave no income-producing estates at all. Thus 
out of every one hundred widows only eighteen 
are left in good or comfortable circumstances. 
Forty-seven others are obliged to go to work and 
thirty-five are left in absolute want.” 

There is nothing else more needed in American 
life than education in practical thrift. We are not 
as a people brought up to appreciate the impor- 
tance of getting the most out of our incomes. We 
are not taught in youth how to expend money in 
the most advantageous manner. 

When we see in this land of infinite resources 
a vast number of honest, hard-working people so 
poor that they cannot afford many of the bare 
necessities of proper, healthful living, not to speak 
of the little luxuries or pleasures of life, we get 
some idea of the criminal lack of thrift training 
in our national life. 

The ease and facility with which small change 
slips through the fingers of American youth, and 
older people, too, is appalling. 

[ 137 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

Only recently a young man working for thirty 
dollars a month told me that he had just invited 
two friends to dine with him, and their dinner bill 
amounted to four dollars and a half. Think of a 
young man spending almost a seventh part of his 
month’s wages for a single dinner! He said that 
it was “too bad,” it was “all wrong,” but added, 
“What could I do? My friends ordered from the 
bill of fare, and I had to pay the bill.” 

This is a good illustration of the way the ma- 
jority of people let money slip from them. We 
are living in an extravagant age, and the tempta- 
tions on every hand, especially in large cities, are 
so alluring that it is very difficult for a young man 
who has not been trained in habits of thrift to re- 
sist them and indulge in extravagances which his 
income does not warrant. 

Thousands of young men who are receiving 
good salaries — salaries which would leave a con- 
siderable margin after providing everything neces- 
sary for their highest wellbeing and comfort — 
never think of laying up a dollar. They see nothing 
in their earnings but “a good time,” and they never 
bother about the future. They take too literally 
the admonition — “Let the morrow take care of 
itself.” You ask them how they are doing, and 
they will say: “Oh, just getting along,” “just 
making a living,” “just holding my own.” 

Just holding one’s own is not getting on. The 
little difference between what you earn and what 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


you spend is power. It often measures the distance 
between success and failure. 

Many people have the false idea that thrift or 
a wise economy means closeness, stinginess, parsi- 
mony. But it means nothing of the kind. As 
Ruskin complained: “We have warped the word 
economy in our English language into a meaning 
which it has no business to bear. In our use of it 
it constantly signifies saving or sparing. Economy 
no more means saving money than it means spend- 
ing money. It means the administration of a 
house; its stewardship; spending or saving of 
money, or time, or anything else, to the best pos- 
sible advantage.” 

Thrift does not mean a pinching economy which 
buys poor, cheap food for the sake of saving, or 
buys poor clothing, or lives in a poor, unhealthy 
location in order to pile up dollars. That is parsi- 
mony, miserliness, which is the opposite of real 
thrift. Thrift means the wisest possible expendi- 
ture of what we have. It means spending for 
health, for efficiency, for the highest possible wel- 
fare of the individual. It means financing yourself 
on scientific principles of efficiency, so that no mat- 
ter what your salary, whether ten or fifty dollars 
a week, you shall manage it to the best possible 
advantage. 

I recall an instance of a father in easy circum- 
stances who taught his son how to do this in a very 
simple and effective way. The son wanted to learn 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

the art of printing. The father consented to his 
doing so, on condition that he should live at home 
and pay his board weekly out of his very small 
earnings. The youth thought this very harsh, for 
it left him scarcely any money for spending. But 
when he was of age, and a thorough master of his 
trade, his father said to him: “Here, my boy, is 
the money you paid us for board during your 
apprenticeship. I never intended to keep it, but 
only to save it for your use, and I will give you 
with it as much more as will enable you to go into 
business for yourself.’ , 

His father’s wisdom was then apparent to the 
grateful young man, for while his companions had 
contracted bad habits in spending every cent of 
their wages and were, many of them, in poverty, 
he was able to start in business at once. He had 
also learned to finance himself scientifically, and in 
a few years he became one of the most prosperous 
publishers in this country. 

However you make your living, whether by the 
work of your hand or of your brain, in a trade or 
in a profession; whether your income be small or 
large, you will always be placed at a disadvantage 
unless you know how to finance yourself success- 
fully. This is not to be “close,” mean or stingy, 
but to know how to make the most out of your 
income; not to expend the margin you should save 
in silly extravagances or to make foolish invest- 
ments. 


[ ho ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


There is nothing more important to a human 
being than to be able not only to earn his own 
living, but also to know how to use his money to 
the best possible advantage, for on this depends 
his power to make himself independent, and con- 
sequently to do his best work in the world. 

Herbert Spencer said that “the chief difference 
between the savage and the civilized man is the 
former’s lack of foresight. Notwithstanding the 
hardships of primitive life, the savage but slowly 
learns to practise self-denial in order to provide 
for remote contingencies. Given ample provision 
for to-day he has no anxiety about the uncertainty 
of to-morrow.” 

I have always noticed that people in a position 
to save money yet who lack a bank balance also 
usually lack brain balance. They are not very 
level-headed. The man who is not thrifty has a 
screw loose somewhere. If he is not thrifty with 
his money, with his time, he is not success organ- 
ized. Of course there are many fine, lovable 
people, often geniuses in some direction, who are 
totally lacking in the sense of money values, and 
spend money — when they have it — recklessly. But^ 
just in so far as they fail to make wise provision 
for the morrow, are they ill-balanced, and on a par 
with the primitive savage. 

I know a very brilliant young man who earned 
a great deal of money, but who felt such confi- 
dence in his continued ability to earn that he spent 
[ I4i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

every cent as he went along. Suddenly his young 
wife was taken seriously ill, and in order to save 
her life he was obliged to get a noted surgeon to 
perform a very delicate and dangerous operation. 
As the surgeon would not operate until he was 
assured of his fee, the young man was obliged to 
borrow the necessary sum, which was very large. 
His wife’s life was saved, but her continued illness 
and the illness of their small children, together 
with the wear and anxiety, so injured the young 
man’s own health, that his earning capacity was 
very greatly impaired. In fact, his career was 
very seriously handicapped and he and his family 
suffered many privations for lack of ready money 
to tide them over their difficulties. This young 
man could easily have saved a thousand dollars in 
a single year before his wife’s illness, but he didn’t 
think it necessary, and believed in living up to his 
income as he went along. 

We never can tell when illness or accident 
may impair our earning capacity, or when some 
unforeseen emergency may make an unexpected call 
upon us. Tens of thousands of mothers and chil- 
dren have endured all sorts of hardships because 
the father never laid up any money for an emer- 
gency, and when it came there was no savings bank 
balance to help them over their time of stress. 

I know of no other thing which quite takes the 
place of a little ready money in case of need; some- 
thing which will be a buffer between us and the 

[ 142 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


rough knocks of the world. No one who can pos- 
sibly afford it should be without such a buffer. It 
is a very dangerous thing to live from hand to 
mouth, especially in this age of terrific competition 
and high cost of living. “Eat, drink, and be 
merry, for to-morrow we die” is the fool’s motto, 
and leads the way to misery and humiliation. And 
when the man who trusts in it is “broke” he must 
agree with Dr. Crane that, “To be broke is bad. 
It’s worse; it’s a crime. It’s still worse, for it’s 
silly. Crimes can be pardoned and sins forgiven, 
but for the plum fool there is no hope.” 

People who spend extravagantly, who waste 
money, usually do so in catering to their own 
selfish desires — in dress, in pleasures, or in dissipa- 
tion of some sort. I know a young man, for in- 
stance, who receives only a moderate salary, yet 
who thinks nothing of ‘buying six or eight cigars a 
day and several drinks. Ice creams, sodas, thea- 
ters, moving pictures, and lots of other things that 
are not really essential often run away with the 
extra salary margin that should find its way to the 
savings bank. 

“The element of thrift,” said the late Marshall 
Field, “is- sadly neglected by young men of the 
present day, and the tendency to live beyond their 
incomes brings disaster to thousands. A young 
man should cultivate the habit of always saving 
something, however small his income.” 

It was by living up to this belief that Mr. Field 
[ 143 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


himself became one of the richest and most success- 
ful merchants in the world. When asked by an 
interviewer, whom I sent to him on one occasion, 
what he considered the turning-point in his career, 
he answered, “Saving the first five thousand dol- 
lars I ever had, when I might just as well have 
spent the modest salary I made. Possession of 
that sum, once I had it, gave me the ability to meet 
opportunities. That I consider the turning-point.” 

“If you know how to spend less than you get,” 
said Franklin, “you have the philosopher’s stone.” 
The great trouble with many young people is that 
they do not learn at the start how to get “the 
philosopher’s stone.” If they learned in time how 
to spend wisely, that is, according to their means, 
they would have little difficulty in making them- 
selves independent. 

Many rich men tell us that it was much harder 
to get their first thousand dollars than it was to 
get hundreds of thousands later. John Jacob Astor 
said that if it had not been for the saving of his 
first thousand he might have died in the alms- 
house. 

“If you would be sure that you are beginning 
right, begin to save,” says Theodore Roosevelt. 
“The habit of saving money, while it stiffens the 
will, also brightens the energies.” 

A blank which I received recently, calling for 
information regarding applicants for high-class 
positions, contained these questions: “Does he have 

1 144 1 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


a bank account?” “How did he earn his money?” 
This is a further proof of the fact that business 
men attach great importance to an employee’s 
capacity to save, as well as to earn, money. A 
habit of thrift establishes confidence in a man’s 
character. Employers know that a young man 
who is neither a miser nor a spendthrift, but who 
knows how to finance himself with good judgment, 
will naturally have many other good traits. 

Every dollar an employee saves places him in 
just so much a better position relatively to his 
employer. It cuts the distance between them by 
so much. It adds so much to the employee’s in- 
dependence; makes him so much less a slave to 
conditions, so much more independent and self- 
reliant. 

Many employees never think of trying to lay by 
anything at all because their salaries are small. 
They reason that since they could save but a mere 
trifle each week or month, it would not be worth 
while to make any sacrifice to *do it. So they get 
into the habit of spending everything as they go 
along. 

It is estimated that if a man will begin at twenty 
years of age to lay by twenty-six cents every work- 
ing day, investing at seven per cent, compound 
interest, he will at seventy years of age have 
amassed thirty-two thousand dollars. 

This little problem in arithmetic is worth con- 
sidering by the great army of people who do not 
[ 145 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

think it worth while to save any at all because they 
can put by only a little at a time. 

Employees who spend everything as they go 
little realize the tremendous power in a growing 
savings account. Even a little saving is not only a 
wonderful help toward independence, but it means 
so much added power of self-restraint, the curbing 
of self-indulgence. It means so much gain in self- 
mastery, in will power, in self-respect, in the esti- 
mation of those who know us. 

“I have little respect for the man who does not 
put himself in a position both to provide and retain 
enough material means to support comfortably 
those who are dependent upon him,” says Colonel 
Roosevelt. 

Now this putting one’s self in a position to pro- 
vide adequately for himself and those dependent 
on him is exactly what is meant by being thrifty. 
Thrift, as I have said, is not so much a question 
of saving as it is the principle of efficiency in living, 
in the wise use of all one’s resources. 

The term thrift is not only properly applied to 
money matters, but to everything in life — the wise 
use of one’s time, the wise use of one’s ability; 
and this means wise living, thrifty habits of life. 
In other words, thrift is scientific management of 
one’s self, one’s time, one’s affairs, one’s money. 
It means that you always keep yourself in a con- 
dition to do your best work. 

The secret of health, of success and happiness, 
[ 146 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


is being good to one’s self, putting one’s self in a 
superb condition, so that one is always able to do 
the biggest thing possible to him, and to take 
advantage of whatever opportunities come to him. 
Anything which prevents a man from attaining 
this high-water mark of personal efficiency is a sin 
against thrift. 

The false economy that pinches, that strangles 
the development of man power, is worse than 
extravagance. Every young man should have an 
understanding with himself at the outset that he 
will have nothing to do with saving that results 
in lowered vitality or efficiency, that anything 
which tends to cut down his power, even in a small 
fraction, is very bad economy and very unscientific. 

There are many ambitious people with mistaken 
ideas of economy who very seldom get the kind 
and quality of food which is capable of building 
the best blood and the best brain. This going 
without what would reinforce physical power, 
create mental force and virility, keeps multitudes 
of people plodding along in mediocrity who are 
really capable of doing infinitely better things. 
This is wretched economy. There is no thrift 
in it. 

The ambitious farmer selects the finest ears of 
corn and the finest grain, fruits, and vegetables for 
seed. He can not afford to cumber his precious 
soil with poor seed. Can the man who is ambitious 
to make the most of himself afford to eat cheap, 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


stale foods which lack, or have lost, their great 
energizing principle? Can he afford to injure his 
health by trying to save a little money at the cost 
of letting the fire of his energy languish or die? 

No one who hopes to accomplish anything in 
life can afford to feed his brain with poor fuel. To 
do so would be as foolhardy as for a great factory 
to burn bad coal, because good coal was too expen- 
sive. Whatever you do, however poor you may 
be, don’t stint or try to economize in the food fuel, 
which is the very foundation and secret of your 
success in life. 

Don’t economize on your clothing at the expense 
of self-respect and a decent appearance. Appear- 
ances, what others think of us, how they rate us, 
have a great deal to do with our standing in the 
community. I never knew a man to achieve his 
greatest possible success who ignored the value of 
good clothes and a decent living-place. The young 
man who wants to get on must remember that 
little things sometimes have as much to do with 
his achievement as great ones. 

Most people fail to do their greatest work be- 
cause they do not put the emphasis on the right 
thing. They do not always keep their goal, their 
larger possibility in view. They handicap their 
prospects and kill their greater opportunities by 
keeping their eyes fixed on petty economies. 

Many a fat bank book could tell a pathetic story 
of starved, cramped, and crippled lives. I know 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


families who have literally starved their bodies 
and brains, and brought their children up with very 
little schooling not because they were wretchedly 
poor but because they were so stingy, so greedy to 
save that they put every possible penny they could 
squeeze out of their living into the savings bank. 

These people became so obsessed with the idea 
of saving money that they lived merely to save; 
and to do this they denied themselves and their 
children everything that goes to make real living. 
Some of them have money in three or four differ- 
ent savings institutions, and are fairly well to do in 
the small communities in which they live, but their 
brains are stunted, their souls are starved, their 
views are narrow, limited; they do not really live, 
they just barely exist. 

A girl in one of these families will be obliged to 
hobble through life as a cripple because her parents, 
brutalized by the greed for saving, were too stingy 
to buy a surgical apparatus for her when she was 
a child. In another, a boy has been allowed to 
grow up so wretchedly bowlegged that he is posi- 
tively deformed, and compelled to go through life 
suffering from this humiliating defect when, for 
the expenditure of a very little money as a child, 
his legs could have been straightened. 

We all know people who are too stingy to be 
good to themselves, who pinch themselves in all 
sorts of ways, so that they strangle their growth, 
their power. They are too close and too narrow 
[ 149 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

to travel or to spend money for anything but the 
actual necessities. They will not spend for enjoy- 
ment, for self-improvement, experience, or growth ; 
and they will not spend for happiness, for amuse- 
ment. The result is their lives are dry, lean, and 
uninteresting because they never have had the 
physical or mental food which expands power, 
which enlarges and enriches the nature. 

Now this sortt of rutty, niggardly living has 
nothing to do with true economy or thrift. Thrift 
is neither extravagance nor meanness. It is being 
good to ourselves in as large and scientific a way 
as possible. Whatever cuts down power, whatever 
depletes our vitality, whatever cuts down our 
energy is a niggardly, vicious economy or a wicked 
dissipation. 

Thrift means that you should always have the 
best you can possibly afford when the thing has 
any reference to your physical and mental health, 
to your growth in efficiency and power. Where 
these are concerned you cannot afford the second 
best. If you are devitalized by the lack of proper 
nourishing food, if you do not have needed rest 
and recreation, if you skimp on that which will 
make you a broader man or woman, — on scientific 
living, generally, — you are correspondingly handi- 
capped in life. 

In other words, thrift is properly applied to 
every phase of human efficiency; but in this chapter 
there is not space to enlarge on the subject. It 

c 150 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


must be restricted to the wise management of per- 
sonal finances. Of course, economical manage- 
ment, the habit of saving, is a very important part 
of thrift, but not all of it by any means. 

What I wish to emphasize here is the impor- 
tance of being able to finance one’s self efficiently. 
In this sense thrift means the best possible ad- 
ministration of one’s financial resources, and while 
this necessarily includes saving a certain percentage 
of one’s income, I do not want to give the impres- 
sion that thrift , means merely saving. Wise 
management, wise expenditure, wise use of one’s 
finances, however limited, is essential to right 
living. 

The habit of saving is one of the first essentials 
of success. It shows a desire to lift one’s head out 
of the crowd, a desire to stand for something in 
the world, to be independent, self-reliant, one’s 
own man. The habit of thrift denotes character, 
stability, self-control. It is a proof that a man is 
not a hopeless victim of his appetites, his weak- 
nesses. 

If you are an employee your savings mean that 
you are so much nearer to becoming an employer 
yourself, that you are so much farther away from 
the limitation of absolute dependence upon others 
for your living. It means that you are looking up 
and on, that you are ambitious to get away from 
poverty and to amount to something in the world. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt said to Chauncey M. 

[ 151 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

Depew, when the latter was a young man starting 
in life: “Any fool can make money, but it takes 
a very wise man to keep it.” 

The saving of money usually means the saving 
of a man. It means cutting off indulgences or 
avoiding vicious habits. It often means health in 
the place of dissipation. It means a clear brain 
instead of a cloudy and muddy brain. 

The thrifty youth is shielded from a great many 
temptations which come to the idle, the purpose- 
less, the spendthrift. Those who see only a good 
time in their spare change, in the balance of their 
salary after paying the necessary expenses, are 
liable to fall in with all sorts of evil associates and 
acquire bad habits, while the thrifty youth, who is 
always trying to make the best possible use of his 
time and money, does not mentally picture all sorts 
of good times in the expenditure of his spare 
change. He is master of himself as well as of his 
finances. 

The moment a young man begins to save sys- 
tematically and appreciates the true value of 
money he necessarily becomes a larger man. He 
takes broader views of life. He begins to have a 
better opinion of himself. Trust takes the place 
of doubt. His savings are the actual demonstra- 
tion that he has not only the ability to earn, but 
also to keep his money, and, as has been said 
before, it takes greater wisdom to hold on to 
money than to make it. 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


There is no one thing, aside from honesty, which 
will cut such a great figure in one’s life as the 
ability to finance himself on a sound, scientific basis 
of thrift. Every youth should have a thorough 
training in the value and wise use of money. 

A multi-millionaire who is a self-made man tells 
me that not five men out of a hundred who have 
made money manage to hold on to it. They lose 
most, or all, of it sooner or later. 

One of the most disheartening things in our 
great cities is that of the vast number of people, 
especially old men and women, who once had 
money, a good home and comforts, even luxuries, 
but who have lost all and are tossing about from 
pillar to post, moneyless, homeless, shifting from 
tenement to tenement, and from one cheap lodging 
house to another, often moving several times a 
year. Having no chance to recover their footing, 
to get rooted anywhere, to become identified with 
any particular community or to stand for anything, 
they gradually lose their identity and become mere 
wandering failures. 

Go into the Mills hotels in New York, or into 
the cheap lodging houses in any large city, and 
practically all of the inhabitants of these places 
will tell you that they once had plenty of 
money. 

It is one thing to work hard to make money. It 
is quite another thing to be able to use the results 
of our efforts wisely. 

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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

The shrewd, far-sighted business man provides 
for possible business reverses, and usually puts 
away in good bonds, in life insurance, or in some 
other reliable investment, money enough to take 
care of those dependent upon him, or to enable 
him to start again in case of financial disaster. I 
believe that every young man should religiously re- 
solve at the very outset of his career to lay aside 
a certain amount of his income regularly until he 
has placed himself and those dependent upon him 
absolutely beyond the possibility of want. He 
should never allow himself to be tempted to use 
this fund for any other purpose. 

I know a man seventy years old, a man of 
ability, good habits, and a hard worker, who has 
been in business for himself since he was a young 
man, and yet to-day he is not nearly as well off as 
many of his employees. 

Ouida, the famous woman novelist, who made a 
large fortune by her pen, was before her death 
reduced to absolute want because of her lack of 
thrift and her ignorance of business methods. Her 
wealth was dissipated in extravagance and in fool- 
ish investments. 

The failure army to-day is largely recruited by 
people who are there because they never learned 
the value of money or how to handle it. 

Tens of thousands of people who are now poor, 
without homes, living from hand to mouth, have 
earned enough to have made them independent if 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


they had used good sense in guarding their 
earnings. 

Every child should have an allowance of some 
kind, if it is not more than five or ten cents a week, 
so that he will early know what money means. 
Instead of buying things for your children, let 
them, whenever possible, make their own pur- 
chases out of their allowance and under your direc- 
tion. Let them feel the sacrifice they must make 
in parting with their money; that they cannot 
spend it and have it too. This should be especially 
emphasized in the purchase of candy, ice cream, or 
when money is spent in other ways for their own 
pleasure. It is an excellent thing to make young 
people realize the value of money, not to hoard it 
for its own sake, but to know how to spend it 
wisely, and to understand what a great power it is. 

The Board of Education of New York City has 
already made a beginning in teaching the school 
children to finance themselves. It has established 
penny banks in the public schools, with the object 
of making the pupils thrifty as well as wise. The 
Board wants “to remove inducements to extrava- 
gance and to encourage the children to take care 
of their pennies until their savings have reached an 
amount that will enable them to open individual 
accounts with the banks.” 

One of the finest things I know of is a savings 
bank-book — there are no microbes in it to steal 
away your peace of mind. It is a guarantee of 

[ iS5 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

competence and a letter of credit wherever you go. 
The man with “the bank-book habit” seldom gets 
laid off; he’s the one who can get along without 
you, but you cannot get along without him. The 
bank-book habit means sound sleep, good diges- 
tion, cool judgment, and manly independence. 

To get the “bank-book habit” is to conserve 
your funds, to protect your character, to bring 
order into your life and defy the ravages and 
revenges of time. 

Samuel Smiles says, “There is something about 
a bank account which makes a man move about 
among his fellows with a little more confidence. It 
has saved the shedding of many a tear, relieved 
the pain of many an aching heart.” 

Why not start the habit to-day? No matter 
how few your dollars at the start — make the start. 
The possession of a bank account, however small, 
gives a wonderful sense of independence and 
power. The consciousness that we have a little 
ready money adds greatly to our comfort and in- 
creases a hundred per cent, our assurance and self- 
confidence. 

A story is told of a clergyman, one of the 
many overworked and underpaid members of his 
profession in this country, who had hard work to 
make both ends meet, and who for several succes- 
sive weeks went on Saturday night to one of his 
parishioners and borrowed five dollars, which he 
always paid promptly the following Monday 

[ 156 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


morning. The parishioner, curious to know why 
he did this, began to mark the bill he loaned, and 
found that he always received the same one back. 
Then he ventured to ask his pastor why he bor- 
rowed the money, and this was the reply: “You 

know, Mr. , that I can preach better when I 

feel I have got a little something back of me!” 

Now, if the mere fact of having a borrowed five 
dollar bill in his pocket could not only make a man 
feel better, but also make him do better work, 
what would not the actual ownership of five dol- 
lars ready money, or better still five hundred, do 
for him? 

How often does the possession of a few hun- 
dred dollars give a chance for a wise investment, 
or put us in a position to take advantage of special 
opportunities ! How often have men doubled or 
trebled their savings by happening to have a little 
ready money when some very unusual chance came 
to them ! I have known of a number of people 
who have made quite large fortunes because they 
happened to have two or three, or five, thousand 
dollars ready cash with which to make an invest- 
ment. A little money in the bank is a great 
friend both in time of need and in time of oppor- 
tunity. 

Many people completely fail in life or are 
forced to live in mortifying poverty, to struggle 
along perhaps under the curse of debt, miserable, 
and handicapped all their lives because they never 
[ H7 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

learned how to finance themselves. They never 
learned the value of money or the necessity of 
thrift. 

A schoolboy being asked to state the greatest 
event of the year, said that it was the fact that he 
had saved fifty dollars. And from one point of 
view he was not so wide of the mark. The first 
fifty dollars he saves is really one of the most im- 
portant things in anybody’s life. 

The very idea of a constantly increasing savings 
account of some kind, whether in the form of a 
bank account, an insurance policy, or some other 
investment, will tend to develop a conviction in the 
youth that a habit of this sort is absolutely im- 
perative, that it is the only way to safeguard life 
against accident, to insure comfort and independ- 
ence in his old age, and to provide against all sorts 
of misfortune which but for this might place him 
in most unfortunate conditions. 

Many thousands of people who are poor to- 
day, living from hand to mouth, without homes, 
have earned money enough to have made them in- 
dependent if they had used good sense in guarding 
their earnings. 

If you merely earn a living and save nothing 
during your few productive years, what will you 
do when you have reached the period of diminish- 
ing returns; what will become of you and those de- 
pendent on you if you have not stored up some- 
thing for life’s winter? You will be among those 
[ 158 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

of whom Walt Mason says, ‘"Each winter the 
thriftless send up the old [poverty] wail, the heed- 
less, the shiftless, the fellows who fail.” 

Make up your mind now that you Won't. Learn 
to finance yourself Now . 


[ *59 1 


ARE YOU AN ORIGINAL 
OR A DUPLICATE? 

Don’t be a copy. 

The dreamers are the builders. 

The man with an idea has ever changed the face of the 
world. 

Ideas go booming through the world louder than cannon. 
Thoughts are mightier than armies. Principles have achieved 
more victories than horsemen or chariots. — Paxton . 

T HE head of a great publishing company used 
to say to his employees, “Don't be a dupli- 
cate; be an original Many people have 
failed to do their biggest thing because they were 
duplicates instead of originals. They tried to be 
somebody else instead of themselves, and ended in 
being nobodies. You can be effective only when 
you are yourself. When you try to be somebody 
else, you are a weakling. 

All imitated work is evidence of a lack of abil- 
ity. It is a confession that one cannot do as well 
as the originator, that one cannot originate. 

A great many people remain trailers all their 
lives, followers of others, imitators, mere echoes, 
because their distinctive qualities, their original 
powers, were never called out or developed. 

[ 160 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Everywhere we see men and women who can do 
almost anything, under instruction, but do not seem 
able to think for themselves. They can imitate, 
copy others, go in beaten tracks, but they never 
dream of doing anything on their own initiative. 
They never do original things because they do not 
think. They are like a certain young woman who 
was grieving very much because she did not get 
on faster. She said she felt like a freight engine 
attached to a train on a sidetrack, while engines, 
pulling express trains, were flying past her all the 
time at a terrific speed. She was sure she said that 
these engines were not better than hers, but they all 
reached their destination, while hers remained side- 
tracked, waiting for something or some one to push 
it along. 

Multitudes of well-educated people, with good 
ability, can’t move their engine. There is some- 
thing the matter with their initiative. They have 
never learned to think and act independently, and 
when they get to a certain point they are side- 
tracked in the life race. They belong to the class 
of which Kipling says, 

“They copied all they could follow, 

But they couldn’t follow our mind : 

And we left them sweating and stealing, 

A year and a half behind.” 

A large proportion of men and women are like 
phonographs or parrots. They simply repeat the 

[ 161 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

thoughts and opinions of others. Their lives run 
in grooves; they do things automatically; and get 
along fairly well until they are called upon to think 
along new lines or to act independently. Then 
they are lost, because their thinking has no groove 
to run in. They work until they strike their limi- 
tations, and then there is no more progressiveness 
in them. Everything outside of their little groove 
is as sterile and dry as the Sahara Desert. 

We all know women who never seem to belong 
to themselves; who never really own themselves. 
They are manipulated by their mothers when chil- 
dren, by their husbands when married. They never 
develop any sense of independence, self-reliance, or 
initiative. They have no opinions or convictions 
of their own. As wives they belong to their hus- 
bands, always carry out his wishes, always wait 
upon him, and do his bidding; they are really not 
their husbands’ running mates, but their slaves. 
They never feel free to carry out their own wishes, 
to do what they want to do; it is always what some- 
body else wants to do. If these wives ever go 
anywhere they go with their husbands; their hus- 
bands do not go with them. They go when their 
husbands want to go and they return when their 
husbands want to return. 

We do not lose sight of the fact that there is a 
time for yielding gracefully to a husband’s wishes, 
a time for amicable concessions, but the yielding 
and conceding must be mutual, not all on one side. 

1 162 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


The woman or the man who is a “mush of conces- 
sion” lacks force and individuality. Everyone, no 
matter how humble, has something to give to the 
world, and he cannot give that if he is not simply 
and squarely himself. 

Every life ought to be a declaration of individu- 
ality, of independence, of something new, some- 
thing different from all others. There is nothing 
which gives such an impression of strength as a 
marked individuality. To say that one has a 
strong, vigorous individuality is the same as saying 
that one is original, resourceful, able, interesting. 
But when we meet a person who makes no particu- 
lar impression upon us, so that we think of him or 
her as of one more person we have met, there is 
not likely to be much mentality or original force 
there. 

If we do not develop individuality, independence 
of thought and action, we shall never amount to 
much. If the United States had not asserted its 
right to be individual, to be independent, to be free, 
we should now be merely one more of England’s 
colonies, a weak copy of England instead of one 
of the biggest, wealthiest, most independent, most 
resourceful nations in the world. 

There is nothing which will make one develop 
so strongly along the entire line of one’s ability as 
absolute self-reliance, confidence in one’s own judg- 
ment, one’s own thoughts and ideas. How often 
we see lives completely changed, revolutionized by 

c 163 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

a new idea which has acted like a leaven in their 
nature ! And how often do we see institutions which 
had failed to progress, which were losing their vi- 
rility and usefulness because they clung to out-worn 
methods, old ideas, how often have we seen these 
places revolutionized, galvanized into new life by 
men and women with new ideas! They step out 
from the crowd, and blaze a new path for civili- 
zation. 

When Charles W. Eliot, then a young man of 
thirty-five, became president of Harvard, he found 
the college slave-bound with academic precedents, 
antecedents, and mediaeval scholastic ideals. The 
trustees, and educators generally, shook their heads 
when the young president announced his intention 
of breaking the crust of mediaevalism. “How is 
it,” indignantly asked a member of the medical 
faculty at one of its meetings, “that after eighty 
years in which this faculty has been managing its 
own affairs, and doing it well, it is now purposed 
to change all our modes of carrying on the school ?” 
“I can answer the doctor’s question,” replied young 
Eliot. “Harvard has a new president.” 

Under the brilliant leadership of its new presi- 
dent, the little Unitarian college, with its four hun- 
dred students, developed to the great non-sectarian 
university of to-day, one of the greatest in the 
world. When Dr. Eliot retired from the presi- 
dency some seven or eight years ago Harvard had 
six thousand students and more instructors than it 

[ 164 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


had students when he stepped into power, began to 
smash precedents, and set the old educational insti- 
tution on a new path of progress and achievement. 

That is what Thomas Mott Osborne is trying 
to do with the hoary, tradition-bound institution of 
Sing Sing, in New York State. He is trying to 
break down the ring of precedent and corrupt poli- 
tics and make the prison a reformer of men instead 
of a destroyer of men. And in spite of all the 
opposition he is meeting, in spite of the calumny 
that is being heaped upon him, he will keep ham- 
mering away at his great idea until he succeeds. 

When Dr. Katherine B. Davis was asked to take 
charge of the Reformatory for Women at Bed- 
ford Hills, she replied that she would if she were 
allowed to make it a school instead of a prison. 

“The surest way to secure failure is to imitate 
some one else/’ said Joseph Jefferson to young 
actors. 

There is no real growth except original growth ; 
and this is creative, not imitative. The man or 
woman who tries to be somebody else never attains 
full growth. He or she is only an imitation and 
passes for such. The world does not mistake a 
copy for the original. People who carry weight 
in the world are satisfied to be themselves. They 
are not trailers or imitators. They may not be 
geniuses, but they are real, genuine, themselves. 

Individuality, the spirit of independence, the 
courage, the manhood or womanhood which re- 

[ 165 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


spects its own powers and is determined to rely upon 
them, belief in one’s self and in one’s individual 
place in life, the qualities which characterize a 
leader, or any forceful effective personality, can be 
cultivated in every human being. Every child 
should be taught from the start to think for itself, 
to rely as far as possible on its own judgment. 

Do not try to make your boy or girl another 
“you” (one is enough), but an independent, self- 
reliant, individual being. A copy, whether of a 
man or of a picture, always lacks the strength of 
the original. There may be an infinitely greater 
man or woman in your son or daughter than in 
the father or mother. The Creator has planned the 
boy and girl for totally different service. 

One great flaw in our present educational sys- 
tem is its failure to develop individuality. Boys 
and girls with the most diverse tastes and talents 
are put through the same curriculum. The dull 
boy and the bright boy, the dreamy booklover and 
the matter-of-fact realist, the active, inventive 
spirit, and the one whose soul is attuned to hidden 
music, the youth with the brain of a financier, and 
the one who delights in mimic warfare and strate- 
gic games — all are put into the same mold and 
subjected to the same processes. The result is 
inevitable. Nine-tenths of the children educated in 
this machine-like fashion are copies of one another 
and reproductions of the same pattern. Except in 
cases where special talents and characteristics are 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


so marked that they cannot be dulled or blunted 
by any amount of conventional training, the col- 
lective method of education destroys individuality, 
nips originality in the bud, and tends to make the 
child a weakling, or an imitator, instead of an 
original, forceful, distinct entity. 

One of the best features of the much-discussed 
Gary method of education is that which provides 
for the development of the individual tastes and 
aptitudes of pupils. This is certainly a step in the 
direction of the education for which the world is 
ripe. 

True education is unfoldment; calling out possi- 
bilities, developing original and individual talent, 
fostering self-reliance, encouraging and stimulating 
initiative power and executive ability, cultivating 
all the human faculties, and exercising, strengthen- 
ing, and buttressing them. 

Society needs leaders and originators more than 
it needs followers and imitators. We have enough, 
and to spare, of those who are willing to copy, 
and to lean on others. We want our young peo- 
ple to depend on themselves. We want them to 
be so educated that their qualities of leadership, 
their originality, and their individuality will be 
emphasized and strengthened instead of obliter- 
ated. 

“Imitation is suicide,” says Emerson, “though 
the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of corn 
can come to him but through his toil bestowed on 

[ 167 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

that plot of ground which is given to him to till. 
The power which resides in him is new in nature.” 

We must till our own little spot of ground or we 
shall starve. The human soil is full of all kinds 
of potencies which will respond in proportion to 
its cultivation. 

We cannot borrow even a kernel of brain wheat 
from our neighbor. Our growth of manhood or 
womanhood, our moral and mental proportions, 
will be in exact proportion to the effort we put forth 
ourselves. What our fathers and mothers have 
raised on their plot of ground will not keep us 
from starvation. Although their barns and bins 
may be overflowing, we cannot touch them. It is 
only self-deception to think we can. We cannot add 
one particle of strength to our muscles or power 
to our brain by what others have done or what 
others do for us. We stand before our Maker 
starved, rattling skeletons, or we are fat with all 
the good things of soul and body, according to our 
endeavor, our personal effort. No one in the uni- 
verse can help another so far as one’s real self is 
concerned; one must stand or fall upon his own 
record, not that of his brother. 

But for those splendid women who refused to 
be imitators, who refused to accept wrongs, to 
conform to false standards because they were 
intrenched in the stronghold of tradition, there 
would be no women’s colleges to-day; women 
would have no legal right to their own children, 

[ 168 1 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

to their own bodies, even to their own earnings or 
their own clothes. They would have no voice in 
the affairs of church or school or state. Susan B. 
Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone 
Blackwell, Mary A. Livermore, and all the brave 
pioneer women thinkers and leaders of the past 
stepped out of the crowd and blazed the freer, 
broader, pleasanter path in which the women of 
to-day are walking. 

Talleyrand said, “History is not a record of 
events, it is a record of ideas.” Our great ocean 
liners are developments of Robert Fulton’s revolu- 
tionary idea, the original steamboat. The crowd 
of imitators in that day called Fulton a fool, and 
his invention “Fulton’s Folly.” The telegraph, the 
sewing machine, the telephone, every great inven- 
tion which is the commonplace of to-day, is the 
result of some new idea, some one’s originality, and 
the inventor of each was at first derided as a 
“dreamer,” or a “fool.” 

All leaders of man have ever been precedent 
breakers. Fearlessness and originality are charac- 
teristic of men and women of progress. They 
always look forward not backward, toward the 
light of the future, not toward the twilight of the 
past. They hold their minds open, receptive to 
new ideas. 

But to the rank and file, the crowd of imitators, 
a new idea, a thing that has not been done before, 
a new way of doing an old task is looked upon 

[ 169 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

with suspicion. They are afraid to think along 
new lines, to blaze a new path. They want to fol- 
low the beaten road; to do things the way father 
or mother did them. This timidity, this habit of 
leaning on the past, or accepting as final what 
some one else has done in any line, has kept many 
otherwise bright minds from doing great things, 
because they never could get away from the tethers 
which hampered their progress. 

If you are a leaner, a copyist, a hanger-on, 
always waiting for somebody else to take the lead, 
to think for you, to tell you what to do and how 
to do it, you will never exert much influence in your 
home or in your community ; you need to cultivate 
more projectile power. A bullet starts from the 
rifle with what we call the vigor of projection. 
There must be sufficient force back of every such 
initiative effort to carry it to its goal. Originality 
is what gives projectile force to a man or a woman. 
It is the mind that thinks its own thoughts that is 
creative; it is the original mind that makes one a 
vital living force. 

Imitation is negative, and all negative things, 
negative thinking, all negative mental attitudes, 
such as doubting one’s ability, hesitating to trust 
one’s own opinion or judgment, hesitating to under- 
take things, the habit of putting off, waiting for 
more favorable conditions, fearing to begin, recon- 
sidering one’s decisions, vacillating, these are all 
deadly enemies of originality and initiative. Have 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


nothing to do with them. If one does not cultivate 
a positive mental attitude, self-confidence, self- 
reliance, courage, and initiative, one will have a 
weak, wishy-washy character. He will be unmag- 
netic, uninteresting, non-progressive. It is the orig- 
inal person, the one who is different, more vital, 
more forceful who interests and holds our atten- 
tion. 

It does not matter how humble your sphere, you 
can elevate it by being natural; by being yourself. 
You can put the stamp of superiority upon what- 
ever you do by doing it in an original way, in an 
individual way, in the spirit of a master, not that 
of a slave or a copyist. Many a woman has put 
more art into her housework because of 'the per- 
sonal pride, the painstaking thought, the distinc- 
tive individuality she has put into it, than thou- 
sands of others have put into their more pretentious 
professions. There is many a politician who still 
cobbles and copies although he is in the Senate 
or in Congress, and there is many a shoemaker who 
is a master, because of his distinctive work. 

There are a large number of patents for im- 
proved household devices in the patent office at 
Washington which have made fortunes for the 
women patentees. These women were not content 
to make bread or pies, or do their housework “just 
as mother did it.” They thought for themselves; 
the final word in household economies had not been 
said for them. They had new ideas; they put 

C 171 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

them into Form; gave them to the world, and all 
women are reaping the benefit of them. “Beware 
when the great God lets loose a thinker on this 
planet.” The world’s history was changed when 
its Benjamin Franklin, its Abraham Lincoln, its 
Thomas A. Edison were let loose on this planet. 

How little did the parents or associates of these 
boys think that they would change the course of 
American history ; that they would cause the mod- 
ern world to break away from the old method of 
doing things which had been sacred for centuries ! 

The tradition breakers have cared very little 
about what had gone before them, how others had 
done their work, or how they had thought or acted. 
Men and women with the courage of their convic- 
tions never wait for the approval of the crowd. 
They have faith in their own thought, their own 
inspiration, they step out of the crowd and act. 
That is about the last thing the average person 
ever learns to do. He will imitate, copy other peo- 
ple’s ideas, follow the crowd, do anything else 
rather than use his own brain, do his own thinking, 
and act upon it. 

Most people slide along the line of least resist- 
ance and do what everybody else does, carry out 
other people’s plans. It is so much easier than 
to make our own program and follow it inde- 
pendently in the spirit of a master. But it is the 
people who make their own program who are in 
demand. 


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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


It is the young man or the young woman with 
initiative, with original ideas, the employer is look- 
ing for. The clerk who can arrange articles in a 
striking or original manner; the girl in a millinery 
shop who can arrange fabrics tastily and design 
new hats and originate new styles — these are sought 
everywhere. 

It is the original worker, the original thinker, 
the original writer who is everywhere in demand. 
It isn’t quantity so much as quality that is needed in 
every field. Many a writer has become immortal 
through a single poem or a few pages of prose. 
But no one ever yet gained immortality by writing 
many books. 

Man was made to be an originator, not an imi- 
tator or copyist. Men and women with godlike 
powers and possibilities were not intended to fol- 
low sheep-like in one another’s footsteps. Nature 
and history show us they were not. The progress 
of civilization is due to the precedent breakers, the 
brave men and women who dared to be original, 
dared to step out of the crowd and think and act 
for themselves. 


c 173 ] 


THE QUALITY WHICH 
OPENS ALL DOORS 
—COURTESY 


There is an indefinable power in fine manners which un- 
consciously, irresistibly, and instantaneously wins admiration. 

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give 
him the mastery of palaces and fortunes wherever he goes. — 
Emerson. 

The good mannered can do without riches. All doors fly 
open to them and they enter everywhere without money 
and without price. 

People instinctively know whether you are well or ill 
bred, or a lady or a gentleman in reality or a mere ape of 
gentility. 

S OME time ago New York newspapers gave 
an account of the death of a man who was 
asphyxiated while alone in his rooms in 
a large apartment house. At the inquest which fol- 
lowed, a woman who lived on the same floor with 
this man said she had heard him groaning, but 
that he had always been so very rude to women, 
she did not make any effort to see what the trouble 
was. 

About the same time another news item ap- 
peared, stating that a wealthy woman, Mrs. Jane 
Elizabeth Granice, left in her will to an employee 
of one of New York’s large trust companies, of 

1 174 1 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


which she was a patron, a hundred thousand dol- 
lars, to mark her appreciation of his devotion to 
her interests and comforts, “as well as his unfailing 
courtesy, honor, and promptness !” 

Each item tells its own story. But for his 
habitual rudeness and lack of courtesy the life of 
the first man might have been saved. Because of 
his habitual courtesy and kindness, the second man 
won a large fortune. 

We frequently read of wealthy people leaving 
property, or making substantial gifts, to conductors 
of railroad trains and street cars, to clerks or other 
employees who have been especially kind to them. 

People who go blundering through life, flinging 
out rudeness and discourtesy and snobbishness 
wherever they go, little realize how many people 
they antagonize; how they needlessly prejudice 
others against them. Such conduct has lost many 
a man a splendid opportunity for advancement, 
while the opposite has given multitudes a boost. 
It is human nature to appreciate courtesy and kind- 
ness and to return them; to assist in any way we 
can those who have made a happy impression upon 
us and have done us favors. 

As to the value of courtesy as a business asset, 
the opinion of a man who has profited so much by 
it as did the legatee referred to above is worth 
having. In giving an interviewer what he consid- 
ered the best rules for success in business this man 
said: 

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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

“I should say affability and courtesy come first. 
Never let those about you feel that it is a con- 
descension for you to serve them. Let them think 
it is a favor. One should make an effort to be 
courteous , 4 for, watch it, you will find that your 
opinion of yourself and those about you will be 
better for what you have done to be agreeable. It 
is amazing how easy it is to keep the habit of being 
courteous once you have acquired it. It’s a little 
form of unselfishness that soon becomes second 
nature if you give it a chance.” 

We never know what will come of courteous 
conduct! — our kindnesses, smiles or little attentions 
to people whom we wait upon or come in contact 
with in any way; but we do know the immediate 
effect upon ourselves. We cannot hold a kindly 
attitude to others, we cannot be courteous and help- 
ful without feeling better ourselves. 

The gracious “Thank you,” so often neglected, 
the pleasant smile, the suppression of rude, hasty 
words that are sure to give pain, the maintenance 
of self-control, and an agreeable expression even 
under the most trying conditions, the attention to 
others which we would wish accorded to ourselves 
— how easily life can be enriched and uplifted, 
made cheerful and happy, by the observance of 
these simple things ! And how they help us to get 
on in life! 

Some young people think that because they have 
business ability and book learning they will only 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


have to knock on the door of opportunity to make 
it fly open before them. They reckon without the 
asset of courtesy. They forget that “the art of 
pleasing is the art of rising in the world.” They 
do not realize that a fine manner is a passport to 
popularity, and that it opens the way to advance- 
ment. Thousands of them seal the fate of a good 
start by making a bad impression upon the 
employer to whom they apply for a position. They 
are ambitious and eager to get on in the world, 
but make advancement impossible by locking the 
doors of opportunity ahead of them. 

On every hand we see people with good ability 
working themselves half to death, denying them- 
selves the comforts of life, struggling, striving, 
and pushing to get on in the world, and yet they 
make very little progress because of their bad man- 
ners. They antagonize people, and make enemies 
wherever they go. We find many of these unfor- 
tunate people in intelligence offices, trying under 
tremendous handicaps to get positions. Employers 
can read their faults in their faces, in every word 
they speak, in every move they make, and they 
will not hire them. 

“Can you write a good hand?” asked a mer- 
chant of a boy who had applied to him for a 
position. 

“Yaas,” was the answer. 

“Are you good at figures?” 

“Yaas.” 


[ 177 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

“That will do, I do not want you,” said the 
employer, curtly. 

“Why don’t you give the lad a chance?” remon- 
strated a friend, when the applicant for a position 
had left the store, “I know him to be an honest, 
industrious boy.” 

“Because,” replied the merchant, decisively, “he 
hasn’t learned to say ‘Yes, Sir’ and ‘No Sir.’ If 
he answers me as he did when applying for a situ- 
ation, how will he answer customers after being 
here a month?” 

There are thousands of young men and young 
women in the country to-day who, like this youth, 
are handicapping their efficiency and ruining their 
chances of success by their rude manners. 

Perhaps nothing besides downright honesty con- 
tributes so much to a young man’s or woman’s suc- 
cess in life as a courteous manner. Other things 
being equal, of two persons applying for a position, 
the one with the best manners gets it. First 
impressions are everything. A rude, coarse man- 
ner creates an instantaneous prejudice; closes 
hearts and bars doors against us. The language 
of the face and the manner are the shorthand of 
the mind, easily and quickly read. 

Thousands of professional men, without any 
marked ability, have succeeded in making fortunes 
by means of a courteous manner. Many a physi- 
cian owes his reputation and success to the rec- 
ommendation of his friends and patients, who 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


remember his kindness, gentleness, consideration, 
and, above all, his politeness. This has been the 
experience of hundreds of successful lawyers, 
clergymen, merchants, tradesmen, and men of 
every class, and of every walk in life. 

John Wanamaker attributes his prosperity 
largely to kind and courteous treatment of his cus- 
tomers. 

“Out of the experience of fifty-six years in 
the banking business,” said a noted banker, “it 
has been borne in upon me almost daily that cour- 
tesy is one of the prime factors in the building up 
of every career.” 

Every sort of business institution is beginning 
to find that courtesy pays. Big business and little 
business alike are realizing that human nature is 
so constituted that people will often put themselves 
to great inconvenience, will even put up with an 
inferior article or with discomforts, rather than 
patronize houses that treat their customers rudely. 

The courtesy and affability of clerks in one store 
will pull thousands of customers right by the door 
of rival establishments where the clerks are not so 
courteous and accommodating. Everybody appre- 
ciates courtesy, and a little personal interest goes 
a great way in attracting and holding customers. 

A business man who has been eminently success- 
ful in establishing a large number of stores says 
that “Thank you” has been the motto on which he 
has built up his enormous business. He once sent 
[ 179 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

a telegram to every one of the firm’s thousands of 
clerks, which read: “Did you say ‘Thank you’ to 
every customer you waited upon to-day?” 

This man has spent a fortune in trying to 
impress this motto and all that it means upon his 
employees, and says that it has proved a great 
investment. The clerks in all the stores he man- 
ages are urged to establish the friendliest possible 
personal relations with their customers ; to advance 
to meet them when possible, never to wait for a 
customer to walk up to them, to always look a 
customer in the eye, to greet him with a smile and 
to talk with him, not at or to him. In short, they 
are urged to try to make such a pleasant impres- 
sion upon every customer that he will not only 
come again but will also bring his friends. 

There is no other single expression in the Eng- 
lish language which does so much either in busi- 
ness, in the home or in public intercourse to oil 
life’s machinery as “I thank you.” There is no 
day in our lives unless we are absolutely alone when 
we cannot use it to great advantage many times. 
“I thank you” has made a way for many a poor 
boy and girl where better ability has failed to 
get on. 

Some railroads in this country have built up an 
enormous patronage and made millions of dollars 
by a policy of helpfulness and courtesy toward 
their patrons ; while some parallel roads have gone 
into the hands of a receiver largely because of the 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


lack of courtesy and a spirit of obliging on the part 
of their employees. 

Railroads, banks, telephone and telegraph com- 
panies, big corporations, business concerns all over 
the country are insisting on the courtesy of 
employees toward the public. 

Not many years ago men were employed largely 
because of their ability in their different lines, with- 
out much regard to their personality or manners. 
To-day attractive manners and a pleasant person- 
ality are very great factors in the choice of 
employees who come constantly in contact with the 
public. The ability to make and to hold friends 
for the house, the bank, the railroad, is a very 
valuable addition to an employee’s qualifications. 

Self-interest, if no higher or nobler motive, 
should urge people to pay more attention to the 
seeming trivialities of every day, the opportunities 
to say a kind word here and there, to do a little 
deed of kindness, to shed a ray of sunshine upon 
the path of some toiler by a word, or even a look, 
of sympathy. A simple “Thank you,” a graceful 
recognition of any service, even though the doer 
be paid for his services; a soothing “I beg your 
pardon,” for any unintentional annoyance or incon- 
venience caused others; undivided attention to 
those who converse with us, putting ourselves in 
the background and taking an interest in their 
affairs; patience to hear others speak, without inter- 
rupting; kindly consideration of the feelings of 

r 181 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

others; deference to the old; respect to all — these 
are some of the simple things which constitute 
what we comprehensively call “good manners.” 
There is none so poor, none so ignorant, none so 
old or so feeble that he can not put them in practice. 
Yet in spite of much improvement in recent years 
it can not be denied that American manners, espe- 
cially in public, still leave much to be desired. 

“It is a sad commentary on our boasted civiliza- 
tion,” says a noted clergyman, “that an American 
traveler in the Orient has to be subjected to the 
humiliation of being warned, as he approaches 
Japan, to put aside his ‘American manners’ and ‘be 
polite and courteous’ when he lands among the 
people of Nippon.” 

“Well, we think they’re bad enough in Chicago, 
but they are certainly worse in New York!” said a 
lady on a New York street car after receiving a 
curt reply from the hurried, perspiring conductor 
in response to an inquiry. 

There is much to be said in excuse for a lapse 
from politeness on the part of constantly rushed 
and hard-worked metropolitan car conductors. 
They are in the main kind-hearted and willing to 
help, as any one can tell who has seen them time 
and again rush to the assistance of old people, and 
women with small children, getting on and off the 
cars. The strain of constant crowding, and a good 
deal of rather foolish questioning on the part of 
some passengers is wearing on the nerves and tern- 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


per, and often results in an outburst of rudeness 
toward a perfectly guiltless stranger, as in the 
present instance. But when everything possible 
has been said in extenuation, we must admit that 
our public manners in general have the unfortunate 
distinction of being “the rudest of any people in 
the civilized world.” 

Many people do not appear to have the same 
feeling of obligation to be considerate, well- 
mannered and kind, when traveling abroad or 
when among large crowds in a big city where there 
is scarcely a familiar face, as in small communities 
where they are better known. It is a curious fact 
that a man who acts like a gentleman among those 
he knows will often be very selfish and boorish 
among strangers. One who would not think of 
crowding in ahead of a woman acquaintance to 
gain a seat in a car and who, if he had a seat, 
would gladly give it up to her with a polite bow, 
will not hesitate to elbow his way and push even 
past delicate and elderly women, whom he does 
not happen to know, to secure a seat and then bury 
his face behind a newspaper even when old ladies 
are standing. 

I have seen women holding babies or large 
bundles in their arms standing in cars for a 
long distance in front of strong young men, not*one 
of whom would offer to give up his seat. 

Men and women are often seen crowding up to 
counters in our great stores, everybody trying to 

[ 183 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

get waited upon first, regardless of the fact that 
others have been there a long time before them. 

Unfortunately in large cities where there is per- 
petual bustle and hurry the example of seeing 
everybody pushing, crowding, and trying to get the 
most comfortable seat or secure the place of advan- 
tage tends to encourage the development of the 
most selfish human instincts. 

We are all familiar with public hogs, especially 
the “end seat hog,” who gets on a car, takes his 
seat on the outside end and compels everybody who 
boards the car after him to stumble over his feet 
to get past him to a seat. I have seen youths 
forcing their way through a crowd, nearly knock- 
ing people down, trying to get into a car first so 
they could monopolize the best seats. 

What a treat it is to see in a crowded car or 
ferry boat a real gentleman, with bred-in-the-bone 
politeness; a man who shows by every ear-mark, 
every movement, that his courtesy is not on the 
surface, is not for show, but that his manners run 
in his blood ! It does not matter who else pushes, 
crowds, elbows and rushes for the best seat, the 
real gentleman will not push, will not crowd in 
ahead of women; will not keep his seat and hide 
behind a newspaper while an elderly woman is 
standing. 

“I recall an interesting anecdote of the value of 
politeness in history that should be of special inter- 
est to Americans,” said a noted Frenchman in a 

[ 184 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


lecture on good manners. “The Marshal de 
Rochambeau, who fought bravely for the Ameri- 
cans in the War of Independence, was one of the 
many good men condemned to the guillotine during 
the Reign of Terror. One morning he and a 
crowd of others were led out of prison to the cart 
which conveyed the victims to execution. Among 
them was a priest. The Marshal de Rochambeau 
and the priest were the last of the party. The old 
soldier, wishing to show respect to religion, begged 
the priest to enter first into the vehicle. Removing 
his hat and bowing with graceful politeness, as if 
he were totally unaware that they were in the pres- 
ence of death, he said : 

“ ‘After you, Monsieur l’Abbe!’ 

“The priest, seeing that the Marshal, who was 
eighty years old, was much older than himself, did 
not wish to go first, bowing with equal politeness, 
said : 

“ ‘After you, Monsieur le Marechal !’ 

“After they had exchanged courtesies for some 
minutes the jailer interfered, pushed the priest into 
the cart and said to the Marshal : 

“ ‘Stand back, old Marshal; there is no room for 
you to-day.’ 

“This very day saw the end of the terror, the 
Marshal was released from prison and spent his 
last days in peace.” 

“After you,” will unravel a crowd quicker than 
any vulgar, selfish pushing and crowding to be first. 

[ 185 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

The world Itself makes way for the kindly, pleas- 
ing, gracious personality. People will voluntarily 
stand aside and let a polite, well-bred person pass 
when an unattractive, rude, boorish hustler, how- 
ever able he may be, must elbow his way and push 
through the crowd. His boorishness antagonizes 
all with whom he comes in contact. 

Time and again in history the whole destiny of 
nations has been changed by a charming personal- 
ity, the fascinating manner of diplomats. On the 
other hand, a haughty, offensive, snobbish manner 
has brought on more than one war, has aroused 
hatred and strife between nations. 

When Thomas F. Bayard, Joseph H. Choate, 
Whitelaw Reid, some of our greatest ministers to 
England, were recalled, the English press was loud 
in praise of their personalities, their fine qualities 
as gentlemen. 

Benjamin Franklin’s personality cemented the 
friendship between France and America, which 
has lasted to this day. It was a common sight in the 
streets of Paris to see people stop and turn around 
to get a look at the greatest and most affable Amer- 
ican who had up to that time ever crossed the 
Atlantic. 

Who can ever estimate the marvelous influence 
of Gladstone’s personality upon the English peo- 
ple, and upon all the nations which had dealings 
with England! An enthusiastic contemporary 
declared that he was not only the greatest states- 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


man, but also the most powerful personality that 
had appeared in English politics for a thousand 
years. It was said that “his manner was the same 
when he returned the salute of a cab driver on 
Carleton Terrace as when he spoke to the greatest 
men in England.” 

Our strenuous American life is responsible for a 
good deal of our brusqueness and bad manners. 
We are too much in a hurry; the rapid American 
pace is destructive of poise and grace of demeanor. 
We are a nervous, hurrying, scurrying people, 
elbowing our way past obstacles, rushing headlong 
to our goal, never taking time to do things prop- 
erly. We do not take time to be polite to one 
another; we are too much in a hurry to salute one 
another courteously. Everything is cut short. 
Our habitual greeting is “How do” or “So long.” 
We rarely see one American greet another with 
really graceful courtesy as we frequently observe 
in other countries. It is a short, quick jerk of the 
head, without grace and apparently little courtesy 
back of it. 

I know a man who when called to his tele- 
phone answers with an impatient “Well! Well! 
What is it?” in a grouchy, disgusted sort of way, 
as though he thought it was impudence for any one 
to take his. valuable time. If, however, it happens 
to be a man of importance at the other end, he 
immediately changes his tone, thus really apologiz- 
ing for his gruff, insolent manner. 

[ 187 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

Many American business men do not even take 
half enough time to eat. Go into an American 
lunchroom in a big city at noon. You see on all 
sides men bolting their food like animals. In other 
countries the lunch hour is largely a social matter. 
Men often sit at the lunch table and enjoy a social 
chat. But many of our men are like the “broncho 
buster” of whom the “Youth’s Companion” tells: 

The story runs that a “tenderfoot” out West 
was seated at a public dinner table opposite a 
broncho buster. The tenderfoot showed such dis- 
gust as he looked at the man, who was shoveling 
enormous loads into his mouth on the end of a steel 
knife, that the man stopped short, and said, “Say, 
tenderfoot,” and he emphasized with thumping his 
fist on the table, “I want yer to understand that 
I’ve got manners, but I hain’t got time t’ use 
them.” 

That is one great trouble with most Americans. 
We have manners, but we haven’t time to use 
them. 

Perhaps we may take a little comfort from the 
fact that we are not the only sinners in the 
matter of good manners. Our cousins across the 
water were recently scored by a well-known Eng- 
lishman who loudly lamented the bad manners of 
his countrymen and countrywomen at English sea- 
side resorts. 

“Modern seaside behavior,” he says, “is deplor- 
able. It is as though people make holiday so 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


thoroughly nowadays that they even give their 
good manners a complete rest.” 

While not overlooking the young men on the 
promenades who “laugh loudly in the faces of 
passers-by” and “ogle every pretty face,” he has 
this to say of the young women who have called 
forth his criticism. 

“ ‘Loud’ was once a: word that had great vogue 
in genteel circles, till gentility itself masqueraded 
in loudness. And ‘loud,’ I fear, is the apt word 
for the majority of young women to-day when they 
get within sound of the sea. They are loud in 
voice, in dress, in behavior. They have a knack of 
describing themselves as ‘unconventional,’ a word 
which may explain but cannot possibly justify their 
attitude toward the ordinary amenities of polite 
life.” 

This criticism might be as truthfully applied to 
American young women at the seashore and else- 
where. On trains and in restaurants and other 
public places at home and abroad we see young peo- 
ple conducting themselves rudely, laughing boister- 
ously, talking loudly, just as though nobody else 
were present. It is not unusual in some of our 
American cities to see a group of girls disturb a 
whole car full of people by their loud, boisterous 
talking and coarse, unladylike conduct. They seem 
to be totally unconscious that everybody else is dis- 
turbed or annoyed, or that others would like to 
read, talk, or think. 


[ 189 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

There are many schoolgirls who are especially 
open to criticism in this respect, for they are always 
giggling and laughing in public, and criticizing or 
making remarks about other people’s dress and 
manners. Only recently a man told me he was 
always obliged to go into another car when travel- 
ing on a certain train on which several schoolgirls 
commuted. He said their loud laughter, and 
coarse, unladylike conduct so grated on his nerves 
that he could not stand it. And these girls were 
attending a fashionable young ladies’ private school 
in a neighboring city ! 

One of the most unfortunate things about our 
schools and colleges is that pupils are taught 
almost everything excepting the very things that 
are so essential to a happy, successful life, — the art 
of pleasing, how to get on in the world, how to 
carry one’s self so as to smooth the way, to make 
their advancement easy. It should be impressed 
upon the young people in the school and in the 
home that they will have a hard time to make their 
way in life unless they cultivate a pleasing person- 
ality, fine manners and a cheerful disposition. 
They should be taught that their ability, their edu- 
cation, their training, all will be placed in a tre- 
mendous disadvantage if they fail to cultivate a 
pleasing personality, which consists largely in a 
fine, courteous bearing and gracious manners. 

The Chevalier Andre de Fouquieres, a Parisian 
model of politeness and fine manners, who visited 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


the United States some years ago, on his return 
to Paris had some very nice things to say 
about us. But in an address before the fashion- 
able women of Paris, among whom were many 
Americans, speaking of the manners of American 
children, he also had this to say, as reported in a 
New York newspaper : 

“I should like to see America make an education 
in politeness obligatory in her schools. A class of 
an hour a week devoted to this subject would do 
much good. I do not think that this would inter- 
fere seriously with the studies of children, they 
teach so many useless things. A competent pro- 
fessor would teach in his class not only manners, 
but the savoir-vivre, the art of living rightly, a 
distaste for rude behavior and an understanding of 
tact, moderation, and correct bearing. That would 
build up a nation which would gain influence in the 
world. I do not say that such classes are necessary 
to the United States alone. They would help us 
in France to have some day a Chamber of Deputies 
where the members would not scratch at one anoth- 
er’s faces or overwhelm one another with vulgar 
abuse. 

“The professor of politeness would teach his 
pupils such simple maxims as the following: 

“ ‘When a lady or a person older than yourself 
speaks to you, remove your hat and do not put it 
on again until asked to do so.’ 

“ ‘Answer every question with politeness, and 

[ 191 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


never contradict directly any one who speaks to 
you. There are other methods of expressing one’s 
opinion than contradiction.’ 

“ ‘If you are walking with another person, allow 
him to take the part of the sidewalk next to the 
houses.’ 

“ ‘If there are three persons, the place in the 
middle is the place of honor.’ 

“ ‘Never enter a salon (a drawing-room) with- 
out gloves, or with the bottom of your trousers 
turned up. Leave your hat, overcoat, and stick in 
the hall, but keep your gloves on. It is almost as 
bad to enter a drawing-room without gloves as 
without shoes.’ 

“Remember that politeness excites generosity 
and good will — that is why an ambitious young 
man should be polite. His manners will win him 
the approbation, or at least the neutrality, of those 
with whom he comes into contact, and that will be 
sufficient to win him success.” 

We rise or fall by our manners. There are 
many men in the great failure army to-day who are 
there because of their wretched, disagreeable man- 
ners which proved too great a handicap for their 
best efforts. The bad mannered are constantly 
being tripped up in life and they have a hard 
time of it to overcome the bad impressions they 
make. 

I have known of a number of brilliant lawyers 
who were barred from political offices to which 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


they had aspired because they had offended some 
one who held the key to the situation. 

Many a political aspirant has blocked his 
advancement by incivility to some one whom he 
looked down on or to whom he did not think it 
worth while to be polite. An insult to a waiter in 
a restaurant, to a hotel clerk, or to a train con- 
ductor has been a boomerang to many a man who 
never dreamed that his rudeness would rebound 
to his own discredit. 

Even from the most selfish, personal viewpoint, 
discourtesy is always bad business. One never 
knows in this land of chance and lightning change 
when fortune may send men who need assistance to 
the very man they have snubbed and abused. 

A case in point is that of a lucky, but ragged 
prospector, who had located a gold mine. The 
miner, without taking trouble to clean up, went to 
a banker in Colorado Springs and asked him for 
a loan. The banker, looking him over disdain- 
fully, said, “We don’t lend money to tramps.” 
The miner went away, and later, when he sold his 
mine for ten million dollars, he had an opportunity 
to pay the banker back in his own coin. He was 
solicited by the latter to open an account with his 
bank. The miner, who had not forgotten the 
man’s former rebuff, looking him in the eye, said, 
“No, sir, I do not do business with tramps.” 

“What is the use of being gold if you look like 
brass” is a saying which carries a lot of meaning. 
[ 193 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

We all know how fine manners attract and how 
rude manners repel. It is not enough to have the 
pure gold of character, it must be in a fine setting. 

It is said that from the age of seven to fourteen 
children show their mother’s influence in a very 
marked degree, even unconsciously imitating her 
voice and manner, but after that age they begin to 
drift away, to become independent and to form 
habits of their own. What a wonderful asset for 
manhood, for womanhood, there is in starting out 
with correct life habits, habits of refinement and of 
culture, gentlemanly and ladylike habits ! 

Good manners are the product of a refined and 
cultured home, which is the natural and earliest 
school of manners. The youth who is polite and 
courteous to his father and mother and sister is 
likely to be polite and courteous to everybody else. 
The one who acquires the habit of courtesy and 
good breedng at home will be likely to act in a 
becoming manner wherever he goes. 

When we see a youth in the street or in the home 
who instinctively and instantly does the right thing 
without stopping to think about it we know that 
he has been well trained, that he has lived in a 
refined home, that he has been accustomed to asso- 
ciating with good-mannered people. 

If American children were properly trained, if 
good manners were generally practised among us, 
in our homes, in our schools, in hotels and theaters, 
in shops and restaurants, on the streets, every- 
[ 194 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


where, all would fall in line. Politeness would be 
the rule, not the exception. It would be in the 
atmosphere, and our street-car conductors, our rail- 
road officials, our shopgirls, our schoolboys and 
schoolgirls, people generally could not help being 
influenced by it. Everybody would catch the con- 
tagion of good manners. 

“I think/’ says Emerson, “Hans Andersen’s 
story of the cobweb cloth woven so fine that it was 
invisible — woven for the King’s garment — must 
mean manners which do really clothe a princely 
nature.” 

It is true that genuine politeness is of the heart, 
the product of a princely nature, yet the possessor 
of a very kind heart may often be placed at a great 
disadvantage because he has not been trained in the 
outward forms of good breeding. 

How often do we see kindly, well-meaning peo- 
ple put in the most awkward, embarrassing posi- 
tions because they do not know how to behave 
properly at social functions or when things happen 
suddenly, like running up against a person, and 
then blushing and stammering instead of apologiz- 
ing; not knowing how to behave at a well-ordered 
table, or not being able, because one has not been 
trained, to practise “the graceful observance of the 
right thing to say or to do” on all occasions. 

One of the best fruits of fine home training, of 
education and culture, is that through these one is 
released from embarrassments which would tend 

[ 195 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

to weaken his self-confidence. Herein lies one of 
the great advantages of travel, of mixing in society. 
These things free one from many impediments, 
handicaps of Nature, such as shyness, timidity, 
lack of self-assurance, from the shackles of ig- 
norance, from lack of poise, from a multitude of 
things that make one appear crude and awkward in 
company, that place one at a disadvantage in every 
situation in life. 

Young people who have not enjoyed these 
advantages, especially those brought up in the 
country, are often discouraged because they do not 
know wdiat to do, what to wear, or how to conduct 
themselves on social occasions, but if they will use 
their eyes and ears, observe and listen to others 
who have had the advantages they lack they will 
quickly absorb the information which will make 
them feel comfortable and at ease in society. 

An excellent way for boys and girls, especially in 
small towns, or country places, to acquire a knowl- 
edge of social forms is to form “courtesy clubs,” 
or to graft this idea of practising certain rules of 
etiquette upon existing organizations. It would 
result in great advantage, not only to the young 
people belonging to such associations, but also to 
the communities in which they live! 

Plays are now introduced into kindergarten 
schools which tend to awaken and develop the 
desired qualities which are often lacking in chil- 
dren. “Justice plays,” for example, or “courage 

t 196 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


plays” exercise certain functions and character qual- 
ities and are known to influence the pupils wonder- 
fully. The constant repetition of “good manners 
plays” arouses a spirit of gallantry and a sense of 
etiquette in a boy until he unconsciously removes 
his hat in the presence of a lady and is automati- 
cally well mannered. 

Kindergarten teachers say that it is a common 
thing to find the little tots teaching the lessons 
which they learned in the “good manners” plays, 
“cheerful” plays, and “social” plays to their par- 
ents at home. Some of these poor mothers and 
fathers tell the teachers that the first suggestion of 
good manners that ever came into their home were 
brought by their children from the kindergarten. 

A man who came to New York as a poor immi- 
grant boy without any education whatever, and 
who lived for years in the city slums, now 
lives in a fashionable quarter, and has taken 
on so much polish in his manners in the 
last few years that his early acquaintances would 
hardly recognize him. His wife was at first as 
ignorant as himself, yet they have both absorbed 
so much from observation and imitation of the 
examples of culture and refinement which have 
come under their notice since the improvement in 
their circumstances that the transformation is 
remarkable. These two kept their eyes open and 
studied as models the men and women who had 
better early advantages than they enjoyed, and now 
[ 197 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


they feel at ease in society where at first they were 
confused and awkward. 

Some one says that politeness is the art of 
expressing what you ought to feel; that it is the 
lubricant which enables people to mingle without 
knocking the corners from each other. There is 
no doubt that no matter how ignorant one may be 
of the conventional forms of polite society, if they 
have that true heart courtesy, which Dr. Frank 
Crane calls “love’s habit” their manners cannot be 
boorish or offensive. The practising of the Golden 
Rule is the first and greatest command of all true 
politeness. 


[ 198 \ 


WHY CAN’T I DO IT? 


So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 

So near is God to man, 

When duty whispers low, “Thou must,” 

The youth replies, “I can” — Emerson. 

The king is the man who can. — Carlyle. 


N NOVEMBER 14, 1915, the news of 



Booker T. Washington’s death was flashed 


by cable and telegraph all over the civil- 
ized world. 

So obscure and of so little account was his birth 
that no one knows the day or the year he was born. 
He began life as “just another little nigger” on a 
plantation in Virginia. 

How can any white boy who knows anything 
of Booker T. Washington’s career dare say he has 
no chance to make his life a success? How can any 
youth, white or black or yellow, be so cowardly as 
to whine, and wait around for somebody to open 
a door to an education, to a trade or profession, 
when Booker T. Washington, born in slavery, and 
so terrifically handicapped through life by the sug- 
gestion of race inferiority, can raise himself from 
the bottom to the top rung of the ladder by his 
own exertions? 


[ 199 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

When young Washington heard two men in a 
coal mine where he was working talk of a school 
where colored boys could be educated, he didn’t 
need anything more. Hampton Institute hap- 
pened to be five hundred miles away, and the boy 
had no money to pay for transportation. But that 
didn’t matter. He had two feet. He walked. 

Within four years, having worked his way 
through, in 1875 he was graduated from Hamp- 
ton at the head of his class. From that time to 
the day of his death he devoted himself to the edu- 
cation and upliftment of his people. 

The success of the world-famous Tuskegee In- 
stitute in Alabama is due entirely to his efforts. 
When it opened on July 4, 1881, it had one teacher 
and thirty pupils. It had neither land nor build- 
ings, being entirely dependent on the two thousand 
dollars a year furnished by the State of Alabama. 
Under the guidance of Booker T. Washington, 
Tuskegee became one of the most important 
educational institutions in the country. At his 
death it had property and endowments valued at 
$2,000,000; its students were receiving training in 
thirty-seven different industries, and thousands of 
its graduates, earnest, and sincere young colored 
men and women, are now carrying forward the 
work begun by their great leader. 

Dr. John H. Finley, Commissioner of Educa- 
tion for the State of New York, was born a poor 
boy on a little prairie farm in Illinois. He had 
[ 200 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

none of the school advantages which you have, 
hut he had so improved himself by self-study and 
what education he could get in a little country 
school, that at thirteen he was assisting his teacher 
in hearing the recitations of the junior classes. He 
fitted himself for Knox College, and those who 
smiled at the poor, diffident youth as he entered 
the freshman class little dreamed that in ten years 
from his graduation he would be president of the 
college. 

At the time young Finley became president of 
his Alma Mater, he was the youngest college presi- 
dent in America. 

The career of Marshall P. Wilder, the world- 
famous humorist, is a remarkable example of 
what the human will can accomplish. When young 
Wilder realized that he was painfully deformed, 
he made up his mind that there was only one way 
to redeem himself from his misfortune, and that 
was to cultivate his mind. 

Handicapped as he was he resolved that he 
would make people forget his deformity in the en- 
joyment of his wit and drollery. And he achieved 
his ambition. Instead of becoming a gloomy pes- 
simist and a perpetual burden upon his relatives, 
he made the world a brighter place for his being 
in it. He drove dull care away from all who lis- 
tened to him and made people laugh as few men 
have made them laugh. And, incidentally, he 
made a fortune. 


[ 201 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

John B. Herreshoff, the blind boatbuilder, who 
died the same year in which Booker T. Washington 
passed away, was stricken blind at the age of fif- 
teen, yet he became the greatest boat designer of 
his generation. Not only the United States, but 
England, South America, Russia, and other nations 
came to him for fast war boats. His torpedo 
boats, yachts, and passenger boats were all the best 
in their line. The blind man beat all competitors. 

His power of touch, cultivated after the loss of 
his sight, was more unerring in its mastery of the 
details of his business than ten pairs of eyes. His 
inward vision, his rapidity of thought and accuracy 
of judgment, astonished all who knew him. 

“An instance of his remarkable powers,” says a 
newspaper sketch of his life, “was given in the late 
eighties, when the consul of a South American 
republic, then on the brink of one of its periodical 
wars, sent for him to come to his office. Mr. 
Herreshoff arrived at the appointed hour. The 
South Americans wanted three torpedo boats of a 
novel design built in sections so that they could be 
shipped in pieces and then assembled at their desti- 
nation. They also wanted other innovations. Mr. 
Herreshoff listened intently and then said: ‘I must 
have time to think it over.’ 

“ ‘How long a time?’ they asked. 

“ ‘Oh, about twenty minutes,’ the blind boat- 
builder answered, and, true to his word, he made 
the intricate mental calculations necessary, and at 
[ 202 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

the end of this time submitted his bid and obtained 
the contract.” 

Helen Keller, who has been called “the most 
wonderful human being in the world,” is even a 
greater example of will power and determination 
to win out in spite of superhuman difficulties, than 
the blind boatbuilder. Deaf, dumb, and blind, 
at the age of nineteen months, when seven years 
old, Helen’s brain was awakened by her marvelous 
teacher, Mrs. Macy (before her marriage, Miss 
Sullivan), and in six months she had learned to 
read and write. At ten she had learned to speak, 
and at sixteen she prepared to enter Radcliffe Col- 
lege. Since her graduation from Radcliffe in 
1904, Miss Keller has been a notable figure, lec- 
turing on public platforms, and writing on va- 
rious subjects. Her life work is the amelioration 
of the sufferings of the deaf, dumb, and blind. 

There are innumerable instances in human his- 
tory of men and women who have turned their 
very handicaps into superb assets. Whether we 
go up or slide backward is all a question of will 
power and of persistent, intense concentration upon 
one unwavering aim. 

One would think that the poor boys and girls 
in every part of the world, especially in America, 
who are defying poverty and hardships and the 
most inhospitable environment; who, in spite of 
difficulties and in some instances personal deformi- 
ties, are winning out in a large way, would shame 
[ 203 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


the multitudes of young people who are cowering 
behind excuses, afraid to branch out because of 
relatively small obstacles and difficulties, which 
seem unsurmountable to them. 

There must be some significant reason why these 
poor boys and girls are bravely defying and over- 
coming the things which look so formidable to 
you; and you ought to be able to find it out. You 
won’t have far to seek. It is no secret. The fact 
is, the reason is right inside of these poor boys and 
girls. They have got the will to do. Nothing 
can hold them back. They are bound to win, de- 
termined to do the thing they want to do. They 
care nothing for the objections and obstacles which 
you harp about so much, which look so big to you. 
They look only at their goal, not at the things that 
bar the way and try to turn them back. The secret 
of their power is in their determination to conquer. 

Young people especially do not realize, as they 
will later, that it is their own outlook that colors 
everything, that the origin of all success is in the 
mind, that everything achieved by man begins 
there. You and I will be as big or as small as our 
minds make us. We make our own limitations. 

You who are grumbling at your lot may be very 
sure that there is somebody not far from you with 
no better education, no better training, who could 
step right into your shoes and make out of the very 
conditions in which you see no opportunity for ad- 
vancement a very marked success. 

[ 204 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


You probably know of a number of people who 
have done most remarkable things under less fa- 
vorable conditions than surround you, and if they 
can do it, why can’t you ? 

Whenever you see a young man with no higher 
qualifications than your own, making a remarkable 
career out of what you consider very ordinary 
material and conditions, it should set you thinking. 
You ought to say, “Why can’t I do it? If this 
fellow is making such a grand success out of such 
forbidding assets, in such an inhospitable environ- 
ment, why can’t I do something myself? I am not 
mentally inferior to those about me who are doing 
splendid work, attracting attention by their un- 
usual methods, and I shall do big things, too.” 

Why is it that Joseph Pulitzer, who came to 
America a poor boy from Germany, so poor that 
he slept on the benches in the park in front of the 
space now occupied by the World Building, which 
he built later, could make millions out of a paper 
which was pretty nearly a failure in the hands of 
the people who had it before him? 

Why is it that some men will take a rundown 
business, that is losing a lot of money, and in a 
very short time turn the tide and make a fortune 
out of it? 

Why is it that an office boy, Hugh Chalmers, 
earning $4 or $5 a week in the National Cash 
Register offices, can climb by leaps and bounds, 
over the heads of thousands of other employees, 
[ 205 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

into a $72,000 salary position; and even resign 
this later to go into business for himself and achieve 
such remarkable success? 

How is it that in England, where the chances 
are not one-hundredth part as great as here, we see 
poor young men, Harmsworth, Pearson, George 
Newnes, climbing up from the humblest position in 
the same publishing house to the highest attain- 
able place? Harmsworth, who is to-day Lord 
Northcliffe, is worth a great many million dollars, 
owning $2,000,000 worth of paper-making timber 
land in Newfoundland. 

How is it that Jonn Wanamaker, a poor boy 
walking four miles into Philadelphia every morn- 
ing to work for $1.75 per week, could make of 
himself one of the greatest living merchants? 
How was it that after a little country storekeeper 
in Pittsfield, Mass., had pronounced him a failure 
as a clerk, and told his father that his boy would 
never make a merchant in a thousand years, the 
late Marshall Field was able to climb to the head 
of the greatest merchandise institution in America ? 

How did Edward Bok conquer his place as 
editor of “The Ladies’ Home Journal,” the 
most successful magazine in the world? When 
battling for* a foothold in the world did he have 
any advantage over you? On the contrary, he 
got his principal schooling in a bitter struggle with 
poverty from the time he was six years old, when, 
with his family, he came from Holland to this 
[ 2 °6 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


country, urttil he had won his spurs. “At ten 
years of age I got my first job,” said Mr. Bok, 
“washing the windows of the baker’s shop at fifty 
cents a week. In a week or two I was allowed to 
sell bread and cakes behind the counter after school 
hours for a dollar a week — handing out freshly 
baked cakes and warm, deliciously smelling bread, 
when scarcely a crumb had passed my mouth that 
day!” Later, he made and sold lemonade to 
thirsty wayfarers at two cents a glass; and, “in 
turn,” he said, “I became a reporter evenings, an 
office boy daytimes, and learned stenography at 
midnight 1” 

This was how Mr. Bok won his way up, and it 
was all the harder because he had not been born 
in poverty. On the contrary, he was of gentle 
birth, and until the age of six had had a luxurious 
home in his native land. Business reverses ruined 
the family, and young Bok and his little brother 
found themselves in a strange land, whose tongue 
they did not know, destitute, with a frail and deli- 
cately nurtured mother to care for. 

These things are not accidental or the result of 
chance. The success of these men in their various 
fields was not owing to a boost, a pull, or any 
outside influence. There was a reason in each in- 
stance for the rapid rise, and the reason was inside 
the man. It was not in circumstances, in luck, or 
in anything from the outside. It was all right in- 
side the man. 


[ 207 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


There is where you must look for your great 
booster — inside of yourself. If you are going to 
make any sort of a figure in life, you must call out 
the full meed of your ability; you must measure 
up to the highest thing that is in you. You cannot 
afford to do anything else, anything less than the 
highest that is in you, and be a real man. Many 
people measure up to twenty, thirty, forty, and 
fifty per cent, of themselves but never up to their 
highest. Some reach well up toward one hundred 
in their money-making possibilities, but they do not 
measure up even to normal in their character, in 
their manhood. They stop just short of the man, 
and that is not success, no matter how much money 
they accumulate. 

In a land where poor boys are every day con- 
quering hard conditions and rising to distinction, 
in a land where Abe Lincoln, a poor backwoods 
boy, born in a log cabin, could climb to the White 
House, and make of himself the most colossal fig- 
ure in his country, one of the grandest figures in 
history, there are no limits to the possibilities of 
youth. 

“What I most need,” says Emerson, “is some- 
body to make me do what I can.” To do what 
you can, that is your problem; not what a Na- 
poleon or a Lincoln could do, but what you can do. 
It makes all the difference in the world to you 
whether you bring out the best thing in yourself 
or only your second, third, or fourth best — whether 
[ 208 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

you utilize ten, fifteen, twenty-five, or one hundred 
per cent, of your ability. Your concern is, not to 
do what some other man has done, but to do the 
best you can do. 

Most of us need some stimulus, some arouser to 
make us do our best, to put forth all our strength 
instead of one-half or only a little bit of it. 

Without any idea of being an imitator, any- 
thing more or less than his possibilities admit, it is 
a good thing for the ambitious youth when he 
meets or sees a man who has lifted his head 
above the crowd and is forging ahead, to form 
the habit of saying to himself, “Why can’t I do 
it? Why can’t I do what William Brown or 
John Smith is doing? What is there to prevent 
me from lifting myself to the height he has 
reached?” 

Whenever you see or hear of an example of suc- 
cess, some one who has achieved success under 
great difficulties; whenever you read an account 
of such an one in newspapers, magazines, or books, 
just say to yourself, “Why can’t I do it?” When- 
ever you go into a gallery and see the portrait of a 
man who has been of sufficient beneht to the world 
to be there, or when you see a similar picture in 
a paper or magazine, repeat the question, “Why 
can’t I do it?” Keep this practice up and your am- 
bition will begin to take fire. Before you realize it 
you will find yourself answering, “I can do it, and 
I will do it.” Substitute “I can,” “I will” for “I 
[ 209 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

can’t,” and you will accomplish whatever you want 
to do. 

Analyze your assets, take an inventory of your 
qualities, and ask yourself if there is any reason 
why the other people do the remarkable things 
and you do not. What have they that you lack? 

You will discover that what you lack most of 
all is will power. And you will find that this habit 
of prodding your ambition will tend to bring out 
the best in you, will tend to awaken a great deal 
of locked-up ability, to develop resources of power 
which have hitherto been dormant. 

If you are down and out, and you don’t know 
which way to turn; if you have failed again and 
again; if you have lost courage, when you see other 
people doing the things which you once hoped to 
do, don’t give up the game. Rather ask yourself, 
“What is the matter with me?” “Why is this or 
that other man a somebody and I a nobody? What 
is the reason of it all? Why should I be down 
and out, discouraged, despondent? Is there no 
place in the world for me? Was I not sent here 
for some purpose ? Did I not bring a message into 
the world just as surely as these other people who 
seem to be making good? There is something 
wrong somewhere, and I am going to find out what 
it is and remedy it. I am not going to fail in life. 
I was not sent here to be a failure. I am meant 
for success. I am going to succeed. I can and I 
will do the thing I want to do.” 

[ 210 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

More than one man who had been down and 
out and who had slept on a park bench got an in- 
spiration from the statue of Lincoln which looked 
down upon him and moved him to ask himself, 
“Why was this man’s statue put here? Who 
erected it and why? He was once as poor as I. 
If he did it, why can’t I do it?” 

“Why can’t I do it?” Let this phrase ring in 
your ears. Put it up in your bedroom, paste it 
in your pocketbook. “Why can’t I do it?” 

The great trouble with most people is, they 
never learn to go on a voyage of discovery in their 
own natures. They are looking for outside help, 
outside power, when the only motor power they 
can ever get hold of is right inside of them. 

There is giant powder enough sleeping in the 
biggest failure to-day to arouse him, put him on 
the road to success, if he could ever get the spark 
to this powder and touch it into life. The 
spark would sleep in the flint forever but for 
friction. Multitudes of people go to their 
graves without ever getting the spark to the 
powder of energy within them ; without get- 
ting the greater part of their ability ever really 
awakened. 

For centuries men looked around the world for 
fuel, for light. They risked their lives on whaling 
voyages for oil to light their homes, their factories, 
never dreaming that infinitely better oil was under 
their feet, that all around them, in the very atmos- 
[ 211 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


phere, there was material to flood their homes 
with light. 

In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and other States, 
men have lived in poverty and died in utter igno- 
rance of the vast wealth of oil beneath the soil, 
which had only furnished them a very poor or in- 
different living. Many men never discover them- 
selves until they are near, or past, their half-cen- 
tury milestone. Many more never discover them- 
selves, because they never tried to. We do not 
half know what powers slumber within us until an 
emergency or a stimulus powerful enough calls 
them out. 

I have known men who were as near down and 
out as any men could be, who turned about face, 
and within two years achieved marvelous success. 
There was no “pull,” no mystery or magic in their 
success. They had simply been aroused, by com- 
ing across something which had shown them their 
possibilities, awakened their slumbering faculties, 
and unloosed their locked-up ability. 

It is a sorry day for any person when he ceases 
to depend upon himself, when he expects success 
to con?e from somewhere outside of him and de- 
pends upon somebody’s assistance, somebody’s pull 
or influence to boost him. There isn’t much of 
anything ahead of him. 

When you give up expecting help from outside ; 
when you realize that the power which is to re- 
deem you from mediocrity or failure is right inside 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


of you, then you will begin to get hold of the reali- 
ties of life; then you will begin to see that every 
effect must have a cause and that if you make no 
effort there will be no result in your life. It will 
be negative, unproductive. 

One mistake many youths make is in thinking 
that men who have stepped above the average and 
accomplished great or unusual things were born 
with a genius to do the particular thing they did. 
They have heard of men like Lincoln and Grant 
being providentially raised to save a nation, and 
they take it for granted that such men were pre- 
destined for greatness. But the fact is that most 
of the men who have done unusual things, and 
who have left their mark on the world, were just 
ordinary boys with ordinary talents like their own. 
The secret of their greatness lay in their put- 
ting their talents out to interest; in making the 
most of what the Creator had put inside of them. 

The secret of your future is all inside of you, 
my young friends. Of course, you cannot uncoil 
in your nature what was not coiled up there, you 
cannot evolve that which was not first involved, 
but much depends on the kind of effort you put 
in the evolving process. While you may not have 
the ability and possibilities of a Lincoln, you un- 
doubtedly have a vast amount of ability which you 
have not yet uncovered. 

If anybody should try to make you believe right 
now that you had gotten to the end of your ability, 

[ 213 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


that you had done all that you could with your 
personal capital, that you had made about all that 
it is possible for you to make out of your personal 
assets you would be offended, would you not? You 
would not, I am sure, like to risk your life’s repu- 
tation upon your record up to the present moment. 
You really believe there is something very much 
bigger in you than anything you have yet brought 
out. If anyone were to suggest otherwise, you 
would probably say, “You are very much mis- 
taken. I am going to do something much greater 
than anything I have done in the years that are 
past. I feel something very much larger in me 
struggling for expression than anything I have yet 
brought out. And I can and I will express the 
biggest thing possible to me.” 

There is a real force in a resolution, especially if 
we constantly reinforce it by action. A firm reso- 
lution has turned many a man from the wrong 
path into the right, and has been the turning point 
in thousands of careers. 

If you have been headed toward failure in the 
past, turn about now and set your face like a flint 
toward success. Don’t listen to the voices which 
are trying to discourage you, to turn you back. 
No matter how dark or discouraging the condi- 
tions, keep facing toward your goal. Think suc- 
cess, act like a success, refuse to listen to anything 
which bears a resemblance to failure. 

A biographer says of “Stonewall” Jackson, “He 

[ 214 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


appeared at West Point, according to a brother 
cadet, clad in homespun — an awkward, shambling 
figure, but with a grim face in which one could 
read, Tve come to stay.’ Mathematics had been 
his favorite study, yet his progress had been so 
little that he feared failure at the first examina- 
tion after entrance, so he studied long after other 
men were asleep. Just before ‘taps’ — ‘lights out’ 
— was to sound, he would pile coal high in the 
grate; then, after the lamp was extinguished, he 
would lie on the floor with his head close to the 
fire and study as long as the coals would give him 
light. While at West Point he compiled some 
rules of conduct among which was, ' You may be 
whatever you resolve to be / and he lived up to it, 
regardless of temptations, disappointments, and 
hindrances.” 

“Why can’t I do it?” Of course you can. Only 
resolve, and back up your resolution with the same 
grim determination that animated “Stonewall” 
Jackson, and all the other brave souls who have 
won out, and you can do what you will. 

u You may be whatever you resolve to be.” 


[ 215 1 


YOU CAN, BUT WILL YOU? 

Try to be somebody with all your might. 

Find your purpose and fling your life into it. 

“The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand 
quail.” 

“ ‘Impossible,’ is a word to be found only in the dictionary 
of fools.” 

“He who has resolved to conquer or die is seldom con- 
quered.” 

I AM constantly asked by young men and 
women whether I think they really have 
enough in them to make much of a success 
in life, anything that will be distinctive or worth 
while, and I answer, “Yes, you have. I know 
you have the ability to succeed, but I do not know 
that you will. That rests entirely with you. You 
can, but will you?” 

It is one thing to have the ability to do some- 
thing distinctive, something individual, but doing 
it is a very different thing. There is a tre- 
mendous amount of unproductive ability in the 
great failure army to-day. Why did not the men 
who have it make something of themselves? Many 
of those men could be prosperous, successful men 
of standing in their community, instead of mendi- 
t 216 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

cants in a bread line. They had the opportunity 
to make good. Why didn’t they? 

You say you long to make your life count, that 
you are ambitious to get on. Why don’t you? 
What are you waiting for? What holds you 
down? Who is keeping you back? Answer these 
questions and you will find the reason. There is 
only one — yourself. Nothing else keeps you back. 
The opportunities are on every hand, infinitely bet- 
ter ones than thousands of boys and girls who have 
made their lives count ever had. 

It is up to you to find where and what the trouble 
is. Is it physical or mental? Do you lack physical 
vigor? If you do, your vitality and your will- 
power are depleted. Is your education deficient? 
Is your training for your vocation inadequate ? Do 
you know what shortcomings are responsible for 
your failure to accomplish what you dream of and 
long to do? Very often some apparently trivial 
personal trait or defect proves strong as iron bonds 
to hold a man back from the attainment of a 
worthy ambition. 

Now, if your achievement does not begin to 
match your ambition there is something wrong. 
If you are dissatisfied with the result of your efforts 
up to the present time examine yourself carefully, 
take stock of your mental and physical assets, and 
see where you have been slipping, falling down, 
where you have made your greatest mistakes or 
failures. You know the strength of a chain doesn’t 

[ 217 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

lie in its strongest link, no matter how strong, but 
in its weakest. Find your weak link and then 
strengthen it. 

Do not hide behind such silly excuses as that 
you have no chance, nobody to help, nobody to 
boost you, to give you a pull, to help you to capi- 
tal, nobody to show you the way. If there is some- 
thing in you, if you are worth your salt, you will 
make a way if you cannot find one. 

“Despite all the cries of unemployment and lack 
of opportunity which are being so frequently 
voiced in various ways, the hardest task to-day 
for us employers of labor is to get in sufficient num- 
bers, boys and girls — with a thorough knowledge 
of the three Rs.” 

This is the recent utterance of the manager of 
one of the large department stores in New York 
City. He puts the blame for the state of things he 
describes partly on our public school system, and 
partly on the boys and girls themselves. Indeed, 
the most serious part of his indictment deals with 
them. His conclusion, based on experience with 
thousands of public school graduates, is that they 
are not only poorly equipped for business, but that 
they are also “lacking in energy and the will to 
succeed.” 

Now, without the energy and the will to suc- 
ceed, no amount of education, no power on earth 
outside of one’s self can push or lead or boost a 
boy or girl into success. 

[ 218 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


One of those early pioneers of progress who 
blazed a way for civilization through a lonesome, 
trackless forest that extended then over a country 
now covered with cultivated farms and dense cen- 
ters of population, towns and cities and traversed 
in every direction by roads and railways, was pur- 
sued by Indians. Living as backwoodsmen did, 
all his life in the midst of savages and implacable 
foes, and trampling single-handed over hosts of 
enemies, though aided only by his flintlock rifle, his 
skill in using it, and by his indomitable courage, 
his will power and his ready wit, it seemed that 
no exigency could well arise that would find him 
unprepared, no question of war craft or wood craft 
that he could not solve. But no one, no matter 
how extended or varied his experience, can hope 
to be fully equipped to meet every combination of 
circumstances that may unexpectedly call for im- 
mediate action or remedy. An emergency sud- 
denly presented itself to our backwoods hero in 
his flight, an emergency which nothing that had 
ever occurred in his former life helped him to 
foresee or successfully to encounter. 

In the earthquake that took place very early in 
the last century in the Mississippi Valley, great 
tracts of earth became altogether or in part cov- 
ered with water. One of these which took the 
form of a marsh lay directly across his path. It 
was a morass that combined the treacherous soft- 
ness of quicksand with the adhesive, tenacity of a 
[ 219 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

miry clay; the surface was too yielding to bear his 
weight but not liquid enough to swim or float a log 
in. It was plain that no way could be found across 
— the only thing that remained to do was to make 
one and it must be done quickly. 

The backwoodsman did not hesitate. Quickly 
detaching two large sections of bark from a decay- 
ing tree near at hand, he carried both to the quag- 
mire, threw one in and stepped upon it. It bore 
his weight. He threw the other just before him, 
stepped upon it, reached out, lifted the first from 
the surface where it lay and placed it just in ad- 
vance of the one upon which he was standing. 
Thus by alternately placing one before the other 
he made his way and took the sections of bark 
with him. 

When his savage foes arrived on the brink of 
the marsh, he was safely hidden by the forest on 
the farther side and they were left incapable of 
following him or of imagining how he had escaped. 

It is the difficult things in life that develop our 
mental and moral muscle, that build up courage 
and stamina. In tropical countries, where man’s 
food practically grows on trees ready to eat, and 
where there is little or no housing or clothing prob- 
lem, the people are naturally indolent, slipshod, and 
slovenly. They are brutal in their passions. They 
know little of self-mastery or mastery of condi- 
tions, adaptation to a severe climate, or the con- 
quest of a hard and stubborn soil. Consequently 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


these people have contributed but little to civiliza- 
tion. The things which make life worth living, the 
achievements, the inventions and discoveries, the 
noble deeds, the advancement of industry, science, 
and art, have been contributed by men who have 
struggled with hard conditions of Nature, who 
have fought and conquered obstacles, who have 
lived in the temperate zones, and have experienced 
the rigors of cold and the enervation of heat. 

It is doubtful whether any territory in the world 
ever generated more noble qualities, more sterling 
character, more civilizing forces than has the stub- 
born, hard soil and severe, inhospitable climate of 
New England. It was the surmounting of ob- 
stacles strewn in the path of these sons of New 
England, which early bred fortitude, persistehce, 
and those allied traits which lead to preeminence 
and success. 

The man who waits for favorable conditions 
and favorable circumstances will find that success 
in any field is never a walk over. It is the 
man who wins in spite of circumstances, in spite 
of adverse conditions, the man who wins when 
other people say he cannot, the man who does the 
“impossible,” the man who rides over obstacles that 
gets on in this world. And why? Because the 
very struggle to overcome the obstacles in his way 
develops the power that carries him step by step 
to his goal. 

“As well can the Prince of Orange pluck the 
[ 221 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

stars from the sky as bring the ocean to the wall 
of Leyden for your relief,” was the derisive shout 
of the Spanish soldiers when told that the Dutch 
fleet would raise that terrible four months’ siege of 
1574. But from the parched lips of William, toss- 
ing on his bed of fever at Rotterdam, had issued 
the command: “Break down the dikes: give Hol- 
land back to the ocean;” and the people had re- 
plied: “Better a drowned land than a lost land.” 
They began to demolish dike after dike of the 
strong lines, ranged one within another for fifteen 
miles to their city of the interior. It was an enor- 
mous task; the garrison was starving; and the 
besiegers laughed in scorn at the slow progress of 
the puny insects who sought to rule the waves of 
the sea. But ever, as of old, heaven aids those 
who help themselves. On the first and second of 
October a violent equinoctial gale rolled the ocean 
inland, and swept the fleet on the rising waters 
almost to the camp of the Spaniards. The next 
morning the garrison sallied out to attack their 
enemies, but the besiegers had fled in terror under 
cover of the darkness. The next day the wind 
changed, and a counter tempest brushed the water, 
with the fleet upon it, from the surface of Hol- 
land. The outer dikes were replaced at once, leav- 
ing the North Sea within its old bounds. When 
the flowers bloomed the following spring, a 
joyous procession marched through the streets 
to found the University of Leyden, in com- 
[ 222 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


memoration of the wonderful deliverance of the 
city. 

Who can keep a determined man from success 
and how can it be done? Place stumbling-blocks 
in his way and he takes them for stepping-stones, 
and climbs to greatness. Take his money away, 
and he makes spurs of his poverty to urge him on. 
Cripple him, and he writes the Waverly Novels. 
Lock him up in prison, and he writes the “Pil- 
grim’s Progress”; leave Itim in a cradle in a log 
cabin in the wilderness, and in a few years, you 
find him in the White House. 

“All the performances of human art, at which 
we look with praise and wonder,” says Johnson, 
“are instances of the resistless force of persever- 
ance.” 

Adverse circumstances spur a determined man 
to success. 

The degree in which a man sees insurmountable 
obstacles and impossible situations in his path will 
measure his success ability. To some people the 
way ahead of them is so full of obstacles, so full 
of difficulties and impossible situations that they 
never get anywhere, while another man feels so 
much bigger than the things which try to hinder 
him, so much stronger than the obstacles which 
try to down him, the stumbling-blocks which try 
to trip him, that he does not even notice them. 

We are all familiar with men who are contin- 
ually up against something that they think is im- 
[ 223 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

possible, they are sure cannot be done, and yet 
there is generally somebody near them who man- 
ages to do this very impossible thing. 

I have in mind a young man who has such a 
habit of thinking that things cannot be done that 
almost any kind of a difficulty downs him. Unless 
he can see the road clear to his destination he is 
afraid to move a foot forward. If he sees any 
obstruction ahead he loses courage, even to under- 
take what he longs to do. If you ask him to do 
anything which is at all difficult he will say, 
“Well, now, I don’t believe I can do it. In fact, 
it simply can not be done.” The result is he makes 
no progress in any direction and he never will. 

If our ambition is merely a weak desire to ob- 
tain a certain thing provided it does not cost much 
effort, if we would merely “like to have” a certain 
thing, there is no magnetism in such a milk-and- 
water purpose. The ambition must be backed by 
the willingness and the determination to do any- 
thing that is within human power to accomplish 
the aim. This is the mental attitude that wins. 

The habit of being a quitter before the battle 
begins is fatal to all distinctiveness. It is the death- 
blow to the development of originality and 
strength of character; and without these no man 
can be a leader. He must remain a trailer always ; 
he must follow some one else’s lead. 

If you are trying to get a start in the world but 
don’t feel able to remove the many barriers that 
[ 224 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


block your way, do not get discouraged. The ob- 
stacles that look so formidable at a distance will 
grow smaller and smaller as you approach. Have 
courage and confidence in yourself and the road 
will clear before you as you advance. Read the 
life stories of great men who from the start have 
cleared their pathway of obstructions which make 
yours look puny. Magnify your faith in yourself 
and you will minimize the obstacles in your way. 

The whole science of efficiency and success in 
life consists in the vigorous, persistent affirmation 
of our determination and our ability to do the 
thing we have set our heart on. It consists in set- 
ting our face like a flint toward our goal, turning 
neither to the right nor the left, though a Para- 
dise tempt us, or failure and disaster threaten us. 

If your determination is easily deflected, if any 
persuasion can separate you from your life resolve, 
you may be pretty sure that you are on the wrong 
track. 

Ill health or personal deformity may sometimes 
hold one back — though there are numerous in- 
stances of success in spite of them — but in the 
vast majority of cases where young people fail in 
getting a good start in life or in ultimately reach- 
ing their goal it is because there is no energy in 
their resolution, no grit in their determination. 
They peter out after a few rebuffs. Two or three 
setbacks take the edge off their determination. 
They do not realize that success in anything worth 
[ 225 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

while is the result of tremendous resolution, vigor- 
ous self-faith, and work, work, work — steady, con- 
scientious, whole-hearted, unremitting work. Light 
resolve, half-hearted efforts, indifferent, intermit- 
tent work have never yet accomplished anything 
and never will. 

“Mere wishes and desires but engender a sort 
of green sickness in young minds, unless they are 
promptly embodied in act and deed,” says Samuel 
Smiles. “It will not avail merely to wait, as so 
many do, ‘until Blucher comes up,’ but they must 
struggle on and persevere in the meantime, as 
Wellington did. The good purpose once formed 
must be carried out with alacrity and without 
swerving. He who allows his application to fal- 
ter, or shirks his work on frivolous pretexts, is on 
the sure road to ultimate failure.” 

Get busy, then, and work with all your might. 
There is no such thing as failure for the willing, 
ambitious worker. 

Work, which many have called a curse, is really 
the salvation of the race. It is the greatest edu- 
cator. There is no other way of developing 
power, calling out the resources, building stamina 
and breadth of character. Work is the great 
saviour of the race. Without it we should be a 
backboneless and staminaless, characterless race. 

Emerson says: “Men talk of victory as of some- 
thing fortunate. Work is victory. Wherever 
work is done victory is obtained.” 

I 226 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

The man 

“Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar, 

And grasps the skirts of happy chance, 

And breasts the billows of circumstance 
And grapples with his evil star” 
will tower above his fellows. 

Energy of will distinguishes such a man as 
surely as muscular power distinguishes a lion. 

“He who has a firm will,” says Goethe, ‘ f molds 
the world to himself.” 

“People do not lack strength,” says Victor 
Hugo, “they lack will.” 

Of Julius Caesar it was said by a contemporary 
that it was his activity and giant determination 
rather than his military skiil, that won his victories. 
The youth who starts out in life determined to 
make the most of his eyes and let nothing escape 
him which he can possibly use for his own advance- 
ment; who keeps his ears open for every sound 
that can help him on his way, who keeps his hands 
open that he may clutch every opportunity, who is 
ever on the alert for everything which can help 
him to get on in the world, who seizes every ex- 
perience in life and grinds it up into paint for his 
great life’s picture, who keeps his heart open that 
he may catch every noble impulse, and everything 
which may inspire him, — that youth will be sure to 
make his life successful; there are no “ifs” or 
“ands” about it. If he has his health, nothing can 
keep him from final success. 

[ 227 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


No tyranny of circumstances can permanently 
imprison a determined will. 

The world always stands aside for the deter- 
mined man. Will makes a way, even through 
seeming impossibilities. “It is the half a neck 
nearer that shows the blood and wins the race : the 
one march more that wins the campaign: the five 
minutes more of unyielding courage that wins the 
fight.” 


r 228 ] 


HOW TO TALK WELL— A 
TREMENDOUS ASSET 


Many a man owes his advancement* largely to his ability 
to converse well. 

There is no other one thing which enables us to make so 
good an impression, especially upon those who do not know 
us thoroughly, as the ability to converse well* 

The art of arts is to be a good converser. To be able to 
interest people, to rivet their attention, to draw them to you 
by the very superiority of your conversational powers, is to 
be the possessor of a priceless accomplishment. 

T HE monk, Basle, according to a quaint 
legend, died while under the ban of excom- 
munication by the Pope, and was sent in 
charge of an angel to find his place in the nether 
world. But the monk’s genial disposition and his 
great conversational powers won friends where- 
ever he went. The fallen angels adopted his man- 
ner, and even the good angels went a long way 
to see him and live with him. He was removed to 
the lowest depths of Hades, but with the same 
result. His kindness of heart and charm of speech 
were irresistible, and changed the hell into a 
heaven. At length the angel returned with the 
monk, saying that no place could be found in which 
to punish him. He still remained the same Basle. 
[ 229 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


So his sentence was revoked, and he was sent to 
Heaven and canonized as a saint. 

Hannah More was so charming in conversa- 
tion that her physician who attended her during 
an illness, when she was only sixteen, was so fas- 
cinated one day by her conversation that he forgot 
the purpose of his visit. When he was half-way 
down stairs he recollected himself. “Bless me!” 
he cried, “I forgot to ask the girl how she was!” 
Hurrying back, he inquired, “How are you to-day, 
my poor child?” 

To be able to interest people, to rivet their atten- 
tion, to draw them to you by the superiority and 
charm of your conversational ability, is to be the 
possessor not only of a delightful accomplishment, 
but also of a very powerful factor in the attain- 
ment of popularity and success. It will not only 
help you to make a good impression on strangers, 
but it will also help you to make and keep friends. 
It will open doors and soften hearts. It makes 
one interesting in all sorts of company. Even 
though you may be poor it will help you into the 
best society. 

It is no figure of speech to say, “Give a boy 
address and accomplishments, and you give him the 
mastery of palaces and fortunes wherever he goes ; 
he has not the trouble of earning or owning them; 
they solicit him to enter and possess.” A pleasing 
address will gain a hearing and win favor where 
a bungling, awkward speech would create a bad 

r 230 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


impression. Good conversationalists are always 
sought after in society. Everybody wants to invite 
So-and-So to dinners or receptions because he is such 
a good talker. He entertains. A person may have 
many defects, but people enjoy his society because 
he can talk well. 

There is no other one thing which enables us to 
make so good an impression on others, especially 
on those who do not know us thoroughly, as the 
ability to converse well. 

Can the ability be acquired? Is it not a natural 
gift? I am often asked. Let us see, first of all, 
what is necessary to the making of a good conver- 
sationalist. 

A well-known writer says, “A good conversa- 
tionalist is one who has ideas, who reads, thinks, 
listens, and who has therefore something to say.” 

It sounds very simple. There are few of us that 
can not, at least, in some degree, measure up to the 
terms of the definition. But there are very few 
really good conversationalists. 

Most of us are bunglers in our conversation, 
because we do not take the trouble or pains to learn 
to talk well. We express ourselves in sloppy, slip- 
shod English, because it is so much easier to do so 
than it is to think before we speak, to make an 
effort to express ourselves with elegance, ease, and 
power. 

Many poor conversationalists excuse themselves 
for not trying to improve by saying that “good 

[ 231 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

talkers are bom, not made.” We might as well 
say that good lawyers, good physicians, or good 
merchants are born, not made. None of them 
would ever get very far without hard work. This 
is the price of all achievement that is of value. 

“Every man,” says Lord Chesterfield, “may 
choose good words instead of bad ones and speak 
properly instead of improperly ; he may have grace 
in his motions and gestures, and may be a very 
agreeable instead of disagreeable speaker if he will 
take care and pains.” 

It is a matter of painstaking and preparation. 
There is no royal road to success in acquiring a 
fine address any more than there is to the acquisi- 
tion of other desirable things. Your vocal culture, 
manner, and mental furnishing must be made a 
matter for thought and careful training. 

How much thought and care the average young 
American bestows on the training of his powers of 
expression is evidenced by the fact that the Yale 
Ten Eyck prize for speaking was awarded to a 
Chinese student — Henry Wang, of the class of 
1916. 

What an honor for young China ! What a humil- 
iation for young America ! Think of a foreigner 
mastering a language so different from his native 
tongue as English; speaking it more fluently and 
enunciating it more clearly and correctly than did 
any of the other participants in the contest, of 
whom the majority were native Americans! 

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It seems strange that we Americans neglect what 
should be a fundamental of our education — com- 
plete mastery of our native tongue. We are quick 
to see and seize advantages in other directions. 
Yet there is no other accomplishment that can 
profit us more, either in business or in social life, 
than the charm of a fine diction, the power to talk 
well. 

While readiness in conversation is largely a mat- 
mater of practice, you cannot talk interestingly 
unless you have something to say and can say it in 
an interesting way. If our heads are empty, mere 
facility of words will not make us conversation- 
alists. A flow of words, words, words, without 
thought or meaning is mere chattering. A parrot 
can learn to talk that way. 

Some one has said : “For one that has read much, 
kept two good eyes in the front of his head, and 
done his own thinking there is never any necessity 
of ‘making conversation.’ Conversation makes 
itself when there is raw material for it.” 

This puts the matter in a nutshell. Given one 
who has a good clear voice with the “raw material” 
for conversation, and who is not too timid or self- 
conscious to express himself and you have a good 
conversationalist. 

To be a good talker one must be a good observer, 
good listener, good reader, and good thinker. If 
you are ambitious to be a real artist in conversa- 
tion you cannot be so without a broad, deep, toler- 
[ 233 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


ant mind. You must use your eyes, not merely to 
see things, but to observe; to store your mind with 
food for thought. You must study human nature, 
and nature in the woods and fields; drink in knowl- 
edge from every possible source. 

Reading .will be your greatest help; not the read- 
ing of silly, superficial, exciting novels, but of 
books that will make you think, that will inform 
and inspire you, books that will make you more 
ambitious, more self-reliant, more resourceful. 

Good reading will not only broaden the mind 
and furnish new ideas, but it will also increase one’s 
vocabulary; and a full vocabulary helps to make 
a ready speaker. Many people have good ideas, 
but they cannot express them because of the pov- 
erty of their vocabulary. They have not words 
enough to clothe their thoughts and make them 
attractive. 

It is the intelligent thinker, the widely read man, 
who has ground all his experiences into conversa- 
tion material who makes the interesting, forceful 
talker. 

Constant reading, interchange of thoughts with 
cultured people, and the study of expression, have 
made many a brilliant conversationalist whose name 
is handed down in history as an example of the 
power that lies in the possession of a tongue that 
does the bidding of a master mind. 

Napoleon, with all his bravery and assurance, 
was actually afraid of the irresistible Madame de 

[ 234 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Stael. Knowing the fascination and power that 
lay in her wonderful gift of conversation, he feared 
her influence over his people so much that he 
destroyed her writings and banished her from 
France. Her hold upon the minds of men was 
wonderful. They were the creatures of her will, 
and she shaped careers as if by magic. 

Madame de Stael had no claim to beauty, and 
the fact that she thus held sway over the hearts and 
minds of men was due entirely to her wonderfully 
trained intellect and the charm of her tongue. 

Practice in talking is as necessary as the material 
for talk. One may be a walking encyclopedia, 
and yet be just as silent and uninteresting as one in 
a gathering of lively people, if he has not learned 
to express himself. 

True, you may live an isolated life and have 
little opportunity to cultivate grace of speech. You 
may not have the advantages of intercourse with 
cultured people. But if you are in earnest in your 
desire to speak well you can overcome even these 
difficulties. The Empress Augusta of Germany 
used to tell her friends that she had been “taught 
the art of polite conversation by being forced to 
talk to empty chairs, each of which was supposed 
to represent some great personage.’’ 

If you can’t address a live audience, speak to 
empty chairs as did this high-born lady. Or, bet- 
ter still, do as our own Henry Clay did when a 
youth. He used to commit whole speeches of 
[ 235 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

famous orators to memory, and recite them aloud 
while working in the cornfields, or in the forests, 
with the trees and the birds and the squirrels for 
audience. Often, too, he would go into a barn 
and with a horse and an ox as his auditors declaim 
as earnestly as he did in after years before the bar 
or the United States Senate. 

No matter where you are or to whom you talk, 
you can, in every sentence you utter, practise the 
best form of expression. Every book you read, 
every person with whom you converse, who uses 
good English, can help you. And the constant 
effort to express one’s thoughts clearly and in an 
interesting manner is of itself splendid discipline 
and training in speaking well and fluently. 

Emerson said, “Conversation is an art in which a 
man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is 
that which all are practising every day while they 
live.” The school and the college employ the 
student comparatively few hours a day for a few 
years; conversation is a training in a perpetual 
school. Many get the best part of their education 
in this school. 

“In my education,” said Webster, “I have 
found that conversation with the intelligent men I 
have had the good fortune to meet has done more 
for me than books ever did; for I learn more from 
them in a talk of half an hour than I could possibly 
learn from their books. Their minds, in conversa- 
tion, come into intimate contact with my mind; 

1 236 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and I absorb certain secrets of their power, what- 
ever may be its quality, which I could not have 
detected in their works. Converse, converse, con- 
verse with living men, face to face, and mind to 
mind,i — that is one of the best sources of knowl- 
edge. ” 

A magazine writer says, “Henry Clay’s culture 
was gathered chiefly from the society of the people 
with whom he came in contact, and from the enter- 
prises in which he was engaged. His words were 
picked up from a few books and from many men ; 
some of them were good, some bad, like the variety 
of human nature which he had fallen in with. 
He shook hands with the hunters of the 
West and the scholars of the East; with wagon- 
boys from Ohio and Presidents from Virginia; 
and from them all he had gathered and garnered 
up his common but copious vocabulary.” 

The way to learn to talk is to talk, and to listen 
to others talking. Above all, ease and grace in 
speaking can best be acquired by being simple and 
natural. John Randolph said that the greatest 
orator he ever heard was a poor, ignorant slave 
mother who spoke from the auction block. She 
had appealed to the sympathy and justice of the 
bystanders and denounced her oppressors for sell- 
ing her to one slave-holder and her children to 
others. “There was eloquence indeed,” said Mr. 
Randolph. “I have never heard a man speak like 
this. It was simply overpowering.” Yet there had 

[ 237 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

been no training, no suspected ability. The occa- 
sion called the eloquence forth and the poor slave 
woman probably never spoke like that again. 

There is enough natural ability in every one of 
us, if we would only develop it, to make us, if not 
brilliant, at least interesting talkers. 

One of the best means of getting at our talking 
ability is to join a debating club. This is especially 
desirable for the bashful or self-conscious. The 
great temptation for young people who are unac- 
customed to society, and who feel diffident and 
awkward in the company of strangers, is to say 
nothing themselves and listen to what others say. 
The sound of their own voices frightens them, and 
they are afraid, even when they long to speak, to 
utter an opinion or offer a suggestion. 

Self-expression in any legitimate form tends to 
call out a certain amount of resourcefulness, invent- 
iveness, but no other form of self-expression devel- 
ops a man so thoroughly and so effectively, and so 
quickly unfolds his powers, as speaking before an 
audience. 

The effort to express one’s ideas in lucid, clean- 
cut, concise, telling English in a debating club or 
on a platform tends to make one’s every-day lan- 
guage choicer and more direct, and improves one’s 
diction generally. In this and other ways speech- 
making develops mental power and character. 
This explains the rapidity with which a young man 
develops in school or college when he begins 

[ 238 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


to take part in debating societies or in public 
debates. 

It is doubtful whether any one can reach the 
highest standard of culture without studying the 
art of expression, especially public vocal expres- 
sion. In past ages oratory was regarded as 
the highest expression of human achievement. 
Young people, no matter what they intend to be, 
whether blacksmith, farmer, merchant, or physi- 
cian, should make it a study. 

Public speaking “fits you for leadership in 
almost every walk of life,” says Dr. S. S. Curry, 
President of the School of Expression, Boston. 
“It gives you influence in your profession, power 
in your business. It develops your power to think, 
to think face to face with other men. It gives you 
readiness, decision, dignity of bearing.” 

No matter what your vocation the reputation of 
being a ready talker will help you in innumerable 
ways. How often when a man is wanted for an 
important position some one will say, “Let’s send 
Mr. Blank, or let us appoint Mr. Blank for this 
or that place. He will represent us with dignity, 
because he knows what to say and how to say it. 
He always makes a good impression with that 
silver tongue of his.” 

The man who can talk well, who has the art of 
putting things in an attractive way, who can interest 
others immediately by his power of speech, has a 
very great advantage over those who may know 

[ 239 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

more than he, but who cannot express themselves 
with ease or eloquence. 

The awakening and stimulating of the whole 
personality in public speaking has effects reaching 
much further than the oratorical occasion. The 
marshaling of one’s reserves, in a logical and 
orderly manner, to bring to the front all the power 
one possesses, leaves these reserves permanently 
better in hand, more readily in reach. 

The sense of power that comes from holding 
the attention, stirring the emotions or convincing 
the reason, of an audience, gives self-confidence, 
assurance, self-reliance, arouses ambition and tends 
to make one more dignified, more manly, more 
effective in every particular. 

Even a partial failure on the platform has good 
results, for it often arouses a determination to con- 
quer which never leaves one. Demosthenes’ heroic 
efforts, and Disraeli’s, “The time will come when 
you will hear me,” are historic examples. 

It would be difficult to estimate the great part 
which practical drill in oratory may play in one’s 
life. 

Great occasions, when nations have been in peril, 
have developed and brought out some of the great- 
est orators of the world. Cicero, Mirabeau, Patrick 
Henry, Webster, and John Bright might all be 
called to witness to this fact. 

An early training for effective speaking will 
make one careful to secure a good vocabulary by 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


good reading and a dictionary. To express his 
thoughts adequately one must know a great variety 
of words. 

Attention to the following rules, formulated by 
Gladstone for young speakers, is said to have con- 
tributed in no small degree to Gladstone’s own 
power in “swaying audiences.” 

“i. Study plainness of language, always pre- 
ferring the simpler word. 

“2. Shortness of sentences. 

“3. Distinctness of articulation. 

“4. Test and question your own arguments 
beforehand, not waiting for critic or opponent. 

“5. Seek a thorough digestion of and familiar- 
ity with your subject, and rely mainly on these to 
prompt the proper words. 

“6. Remember that if you are to sway an audi- 
ence you must, besides thinking out your matter, 
watch it all along.” 

Ability in oratory is acquired just as ability in 
conversation. It is a matter of painstaking and 
preparation. There is everything in learning what 
you wish to know. Your vocal culture, manner 
and mental furnishing are to be made a matter for 
thought and careful training. 

The French people have always excelled in con- 
versation. They aim to be quick at repartee, and 
prepare themselves for certain occasions with 
bright, apt things to say. It is said that the better 
class of French people prepare themselves for con- 

[ 241 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

versation upon any special occasion with as much 
pains as they prepare their toilet, for they know 
that no matter what they may wear, a heavy, unin- 
teresting tongue may spoil it all. 

No amount of natural ability or education or 
good clothes, no amount of money, will make you 
appear well if you murder the English language. 

The truth of this was vividly brought home to 
me at a gathering some time since. I was pro- 
foundly impressed by the striking figure and impos- 
ing appearance of a stranger present. I could not 
keep my eyes from him, and sought an introduc- 
tion. But the moment the man opened his mouth 
the bubble burst. The great hopes which his noble 
appearance had raised were shattered the instant 
he began to talk, for the poverty and awkwardness 
of his language betrayed a total absence of culture. 

Nothing will indicate your culture or lack of it 
so much as your conversation — the words you use. 
Your conversation will give your whole history. A 
discerning mind can analyze your past by it. It is 
easy to give a picture of your environment, the kind 
of people you have lived with, whether the vulgar 
and common or the educated and refined. What 
you say will give the world the true measure of 
your manhood or womanhood. 

Many people are troubled by not being able 
to find topics for conversation. They are in 
the position of Artemus Ward, who, when called 
upon to make a speech without a chance to prepare, 
1 242 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


said, “I have the gift of oratory, but I haven’t it 
just now with me.” These people have the gift of 
speech, but they have nothing ready to say. 

There is a good suggestion for them in the 
advice which Longfellow once gave to a young 
friend: “See some good picture, — in nature, if pos- 
sible, or on a canvas, — hear a page of the best music, 
or read a great poem every day. You will always 
find a free half hour for one or the other, and at 
the end of the year your mind will shine with such 
an accumulation of jewels as will astonish even 
yourself.” 

Read good books, a good newspaper and some 
of the best magazines and, if you live in a city, go 
to a good play, an opera or a concert, whenever 
you can. 

All these things will give you food for thought 
and raw material for conversation. Practise talk- 
ing about anything and everything you see and 
hear and read, your experiences during the day, 
whatever interests you or arouses your attention. 
There is practically no limit to the topics of con- 
versation available to the keen observer, the intelli- 
gent reader and thinker. Make use of these topics. 

Form a conversation club in your neighbor- 
hood and get together one or two evenings a 
week to talk. In these days there are few places 
so remote from civilization that one cannot get 
books and magazines and newspapers; and none so 
sparsely populated that there will not be enough 

c 243 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

young people to form a reading and conversation 
circle. 

Follow the lines adopted by a young woman in 
New York, who has recently formed such a circle 
for young society debutantes, many of whom, 
according to this bright woman, need drill in inter- 
esting conversation. 

“The time has passed,” she says, “when men do 
not want intelligence in a woman. Life is so much 
keener to-day that beauty no longer satisfies the 
average man ; he demands responsive interest in the 
affairs of the day. 

“So,” she said, in outlining her work to an inter- 
viewer, “I’m gathering a group of the debutantes 
about me here in the Plaza Hotel once a week, very 
informally, to discuss the affairs of the day. I 
want to interest them in something beside the 
society column of the newspaper. I don’t lecture 
to them, I just try to call to their attention the 
movements and projects in various fields with 
which intelligent people are concerned; topics that 
they may like to watch, so new, still, so up to the 
minute, that they have not yet found their way into 
books. I want to encourage the broadest scope of 
interests, the broadest world views. 

“One week we discussed diplomacy and the sort 
of work which our representatives, our consuls and 
ambassadors in foreign lands are called upon to do. 

“We are also interested in the merchant marine, 
particularly since that question is being debated in 
[ 2 44 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Congress. That is one of the romantic subjects; 
it is interesting to compare the ‘clippers’ of old 
with the racing yachts of to-day. 

“Most girls enjoy learning about interesting 
things when they are not conscious they are being 
instructed. 

“When we talk about the drama of to-day I 
shall have photographs of the leading lights in the 
dramatic world. 

“My aim having these talks for — or with — 
debutantes is not to tell them what to think on any 
subject, but to carry out the thought with which 
Demosthenes used to conclude his orations, ‘I beg 
of you to think.’ ” 

“I beg of you to think.” If you do, and if you 
act as well, any young man or woman, either in 
town or country, can readily do what this lady is 
doing in New York. 

In practising conversation, don’t make the mis- 
take of being always serious or solemn. Conver- 
sation is not preaching, although some people seem 
to think it is. They are always delivering mono- 
logues, little preachments ; they can not, seemingly, 
talk in any other way. They have an idea that 
conversation must always and everywhere be a 
serious educative matter, that people should con- 
verse only to improve their minds, to increase their 
knowledge, that there should be no frivolity or 
lightness about it. One might just as well say 
people should go to theaters only to improve their 
[ 2 45 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

minds; that they must not go for enjoyment, for 
the purpose of being entertained. A monotonous, 
heavy conversation has about the same effect upon 
the mind as the resting of the eye for a long time 
upon a single solid color, like red or green. The 
monotony tires the nerves of the eye and the brain, 
and as the constant changing of color, the variety 
that passes before the eye, rests it so is the chang- 
ing of the tone of conversation from grave to gay, 
from serious to light and playful, restful to the 
mind. 

A popular society woman counseling a debu- 
tante protegee on behavior is quoted as saying, 
“Talk, talk, talk. It does not matter much what 
you say, but chatter away lightly and gaily. 
Nothing embarrasses and bores the average man 
so much as a girl who has to be entertained.” 

Light, frothy talk can hardly be called conversa- 
tion, but it has its uses and is very valuable on 
occasion. It relieves monotony, and in any event, 
provided it is not ill-natured, is better than an awk- 
ward, embarrassing silence. The touch and go 
of society talkers, the small talk of social inter- 
course, has its place in the repertory of the skilled 
conversationalist as well as more serious subjects. 

What has been said of pudding, — that it is not 
so much the flour and eggs as the sugar and spices 
and extracts that make it pleasant to the taste, — 
may be said with equal truth of conversation. It 
is not so much the flour and eggs, the solid facts, 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


as the light touch, the quick retort, the apt illustra- 
tion, the pleasant voice and gracious manner that 
make conversation charming and entertaining. 

A good conversationalist is not too serious. He 
does not deal too much with facts, no matter how 
important. Facts, statistics, weary. Vivacity is 
absolutely necessary. Heavy conversation bores; 
too light disgusts. 

While conversation is not “swapping stories,” a 
practice much in vogue among Americans, a fund 
of anecdotes, apt and to the point, are a great aid 
in brightening talk or in illustrating a point one 
wishes to make. 

Lincoln was master of the art of using anecdotes 
with telling effect. He knew the value of a hearty 
laugh in melting reserve and putting those he was 
talking to on a more intimate and familiar footing. 
He put people at ease with his stories and jokes, 
and made them feel so completely at home in his 
presence that they opened up their mental treasures 
to him without reserve. Strangers were always 
glad to talk with him because he was so cordial, 
quaint, and always gave more than he got. 

To make yourself interesting and to hold atten- 
tion, you must enter into the life of the people you 
are conversing with, and touch them along the 
lines of their interest. No matter how much you 
may know about a subject if it does not happen 
to interest those to whom you are talking, your 
efforts will be largely lost. The best conversa- 
[ 247 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

tionalists are always tactful — Interesting without 
offending. Neither do they stab people, hurt their 
feelings, or drag out their family skeletons, for the 
sake of making a witty remark. 

To listen courteously and give others a chance 
to express themselves is as much a part of conver- 
sation as talking. The most popular conversation- 
alist is the one who gives others a chance to reply. 
To be a good listener is a cardinal point in good 
manners, and will win more laurels than the most 
elaborate one-sided discourse. Indeed, the man or 
woman who monopolizes the talk — a monologue 
can’t be called conversation — is the most dreaded 
of all bores. Even one’s best friend grows tire- 
some when the talk is one-sided; when it does not 
permit an interchange of ideas, which is the very 
essence of conversation. 

“I believe that the use of the human voice in 
speaking,” said Lady Henry Somerset, the well- 
known prohibition platform lecturer, “is as much 
an art as the use of the voice in singing.” This is 
as true of the voice in conversation in the drawing- 
room or social circle as in speaking on the platform. 

A discordant voice would seriously mar the most 
interesting conversation. There is nothing more 
disagreeable than a harsh, disagreeable voice, 
unless it be the high-pitched, nasal intonation, so 
characteristic of Americans, or the whine which is 
frequently heard from people who are narrow- 
minded and discontented. A low, clear, well-modu- 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


lated voice indicates refinement, and should be 
carefully cultivated by the person who wishes to 
make a good impression in speaking. The Amer- 
ican-speaking voice especially needs to be trained. 

“ ‘I will grant each of you one wish,’ assented 
Fate to three women,” wrote Minna Thomas 
Antrin, in a magazine article. 

“ ‘I choose beauty,’ exclaimed the youngest. 

“ ‘Give me power,’ said another. 

“ ‘And to me a low, persuasive voice,’ the last 
murmured. 

“Each had her will. The beauty of the first was 
ruined by an accident. The power of the second 
lasted but one season. But the third woman kept 
her talisman through a long life, and from it came 
many things, among them power.” 


r 249 ] 


ARE YOU A GOOD 
ADVERTISEMENT 
OF YOURSELF ? 

The apparel oft proclaims the man. — Shakespeare. 

“A good appearance is at a premium everywhere.” 

As a general thing an individual who is neat in his person 
is neat in his morals. — H. W. Shaw . 

“Clothes don’t make the man, but good clothes have got 
many a man a good job.” 

“Hp HE longer I live, and the more sharply I 

I look about me, the higher do I value 
appearances,” said the famous English 
essayist, Hugh Bland. 

Appearances certainly cut a tremendous figure, 
not only in the social, but also in the business world. 
The mind is powerfully influenced through the eye, 
and the intelligent merchant knows that it is as dif- 
ficult to overcome an unfavorable impression in 
the appearance of merchandise as it is to overcome 
the prejudice of an unfortunate first impression 
upon a person at introduction. 

People are guided largely by the eye in their 
purchases. Things must make a pleasing impres- 
sion upon the eye, or the mind rejects them. For 
[ 2 5 ° ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


this reason every man who depends upon public 
patronage tries to make his business, whatever he 
sells, look just as attractive as possible. Ordinary 
articles sometimes bring very high prices because 
of the attractive packages in which they are put 
up. For example, the confectionery for w r hich one 
may pay several dollars, in many instances, does 
not cost a fraction of the price of the box in which 
it is put up. The purchaser does not object because 
the dainty painted receptacle appeals to the eye. 
The poor boy Huyler, who used to peddle molasses 
candy from a basket on the street, became a mil- 
lionaire because he knew the secret of attractive 
suggestion. He knew that the best candies put up 
in the most attractive packages would appeal to 
people. He knew that when a young man gives 
away candy, the appearance of the package will 
have everything to do with the impression it makes. 

Some one has said that the fruit commission 
merchant who should refuse to follow the custom 
of putting the best fruit on the top of a barrel or 
box would be forced out of business. Even honest 
merchants claim that this is necessary because of 
the imperative importance of appearances. How- 
ever this may be, it is undeniable that a great deal 
of the trade in our large mercafitile houses depends 
upon the good impression made upon the customers 
through the eye. It is not enough to have the best 
goods ; they must be arranged in a pleasing, taste- 
ful, tempting manner, so as to catch and hold the 
[ 251 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


attention. Merchants vie with one another in their 
efforts to arrest the eye. They pay window decor- 
ators large salaries because of their good taste, 
their ability to make show windows so attractive 
as to draw customers inside to look at their wares. 

Competition is so keen that everything in our 
stores and shops must be arranged with reference 
to beauty and artistic effect. The up-to-date busi- 
ness man knows that the appearance of his house 
is his biggest advertisement, one of his most valu- 
able assets. This is why some of our great depart- 
ment stores look like art galleries in comparison 
with the stores of fifty years ago. 

Your personal appearance, your dress, your man- 
ner, everything about you, the way in which you 
keep yourself groomed, how you carry yourself, 
what you say, how you act, all these things are to 
you what the show windows of a merchant’s store 
are to his business, the way he advertises and dis- 
plays his goods. 

Your appearance will be taken as an advertise- 
ment of what you are. It is constantly telling peo- 
ple whether you are a success or a failure; and 
where people place you in their estimation will 
have a powerful influence upon your career. 

Many think it is- absurd and unjust to judge a 
man or a woman so much by clothes instead of 
merit. But we live in an electrical age. No one, 
on a first introduction at all events, has time to 
study people at close range. There is no other 

t 2 5 2 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


way to judge of the majority of people than by 
their appearance, and it is perfectly natural that 
we should be sized up by the earmarks we carry 
with us. 

A young man who is seen frequently in bad 
company is judged accordingly. He is supposed 
to be in sympathy with his companions. If a per- 
son is slovenly, slipshod in his dress, careless in his 
manners, if he does not keep himself clean, well 
groomed, people who do not know him intimately 
naturally think that his character, his mental 
make-up and his ability correspond with his appear- 
ance. 

Few people realize what a tremendous influence 
appearances have to help or hinder. They do not 
consider that when they apply for a position their 
would-be employer knows nothing about them but 
just what they present to his eye in a brief inter- 
view; and his weighing and measuring faculties, 
his discriminating powers are working at lightning 
speed, sizing up the applicant, and oftentimes his 
mind is made up instantly. No matter who recom- 
mends you, or how many letters of recommenda- 
tion you have, he will judge you by your appear- 
ance. That will be the deciding factor for or 
against you. In the last analysis your personal 
appearance is your letter of credit. It advertises 
what you have to sell — your personal services. 

If you should see dirty show windows in a big 
store; if the articles displayed were out of style and 

[ 253 1 


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covered with flies and dust, if they were not ar- 
ranged with artistic taste, but were thrown in the 
window in a helter-skelter way, you would at once 
draw the conclusion that their quality was in keep- 
ing with their appearance, that the concern was on 
the toboggan, that there was something the matter 
with the man at the head of it, that he was dete- 
riorating perhaps from drink, or other dissipation, 
and you would not think of trading there. 

Now, if you are looking for a job and go about 
in an unkempt manner, with ill-fitting, soiled cloth- 
ing, unpolished shoes, wearing three or four day’s 
growth of beard on your face, unwashed hands, 
long hair, frayed necktie, soiled linen, what sort 
of an opinion do you think people would have of 
you ? Do you suppose any business man who was 
anxious to make a good impression on the public 
would want to have you a-bout his place ? Of course 
he wouldn’t think of such a thing. It would be 
like the National City Bank of New York sending 
out “sandwich men,” blear-eyed outcasts, to adver- 
tise this great financial institution. 

If you should apply for a position in such a 
condition, no matter how great your ability or how 
high your recommendations, no first-class business 
concern would hire you, because you would be a 
bad advertisement of the firm. The employer 
would say to himself, “Why, of course this appli- 
cant’s bearing, his general appearance and manner 
are supposed to be his letter of introduction, his 

c 254 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


argument showing why he should have the position 
he wants. It is certainly a very poor one. Every- 
body can see that this fellow doesn’t amount to any- 
thing. If he had any gumption, anything worth 
while in him, he would brace up, brush up, and look 
up in his appearance. It is evident he has no ambi- 
tion. He’s no good, and there’s no use wasting 
time talking to him.” 

I know a very able man with a trained mind, 
good judgment, and good sense, who has been try- 
ing for a quarter of a century to climb to a position 
in keeping with his ability, but has been held back 
by his slovenly appearance. I do not remember 
ever meeting him when he wore clean linen or when 
he did not have grease spots disfiguring his cloth- 
ing. I have never seen him when his shoes were 
polished, when his apparel was not only soiled but 
usually worn threadbare. He pays no attention to 
his dress or any of the details that make a well- 
groomed man. The result is he is such a wretched 
advertisement of the splendid brain merchandise 
and energy he has to sell, that people won’t buy. 
His whole appearance is an absolute denial of his 
sterling worth. 

I have not a doubt but that fifty dollars judi- 
ciously expended in improving his appearance 
would result in a material advance in this man’s 
position and salary, but he will never spend the 
fifty dollars, although he can afford to do so. He 
will plod on in mediocrity at a small salary to the 

[ 255 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

end of his career just because he has been such a 
wretched advertisement of himself. And he will 
probably never know why he has not succeeded. 
He will go to his grave with the secret of his failure 
to get on in the world undiscovered. 

At the very opposite pole, so far as apprecia- 
tion of the value of appearances is concerned, is 
another I have in mind, who came to New York 
only a few years ago, a comparatively poor man. 
Instead of going to a cheap boarding-house he 
hired a room in the best hotel in the city, although 
he was obliged to go to cheap restaurants for his 
meals. When he had company, however, he went 
to Delmonico’s or Sherry’s, or dined at his hotel. 

Everything about him must be smart, -attractive, 
distinctive. He went to one of the most expensive 
tailors for his clothes. Even his neckties, collars, 
and cuffs must be made to order, because he did 
not want anything he wore to resemble anything 
which could be bought at a store. His philosophy 
of success forbade his showing any sign of weak- 
ness or poverty, or the lack of success anywhere. 
Everything with which he had anything to do must 
be an earmark of prosperity. There must be suc- 
cess stamped upon every bit of his environment. 
So he took an office in a high-priced building, where 
the richest men and the most powerful corporations 
had their headquarters. Every bit of furniture in 
his office was made to order and was as distinctive 
as his clothing. He thought it imperative that 

[ 256 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


everyone who called at his office should go away 
impressed with his marked prosperity, because that 
was a free advertisement, and he could not afford 
to lose it. 

If any one called to see him who could in any 
way give him a lift in business or add in any way 
to his reputation or help him along, he would invite 
him to luncheon or dinner, and would telephone 
for his automobile to be sent to his office. And 
this automobile was no ordinary machine. It was 
as distinctive as everything else that belonged to 
the man. In other words, everything about him 
was calculated to make the strongest possible 
impression upon strangers — an impression of pros- 
perity, of success. 

The result was that this young man soon got in 
with millionaires, and from them he often got tips 
and information which enabled him to make money 
so rapidly that in a comparatively short time he 
became a millionaire himself. I know young men 
in New York who actually borrow money in order 
to keep up appearances, and many of them win 
out, so far as getting ahead is concerned. They 
manage to put up a good front, make a good 
impression upon their bankers and the people with 
whom they do business. They thus use their 
appearances for their credit. 

Now, I am not advocating this method of attain- 
ing financial success, or passing upon whether it is 
right or wrong, but am simply stating facts to 

c 257 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

emphasize the tremendous power of appearances. 

We all know that appearances have a wonderful 
influence upon those we deal with, and any show 
of weakness is fatal. Many a man has kept his 
business afloat when it would otherwise have gone 
to pieces, just because he knew the art of keeping 
up appearances, of keeping away every earmark 
of weakness, of poverty, of straitened circum- 
stances. A man in financial difficulties knows per- 
fectly well that if he told his banker the exact 
condition of his business he would be refused the 
loan he asks, which would often mean ruin, as the 
getting it often means success. 

Many a man has gone to bed anxious and wor- 
ried about his business affairs, not knowing, per- 
haps, where the money was to come from for his 
payroll on Saturday, but who, by knowing the 
philosophy of appearances, of covering up the weak 
points in his business, has succeeded in getting a 
loan to tide him over, when, if he had exposed his 
real condition, he could not have gotten credit from 
any one. 

A “good front,” the appearance of prosperity, 
as an asset, is a very interesting topic, on which 
there is a great diversity of opinion. How far one 
is justified in going beyond his means to keep 
up appearances, and, for business reasons, to make 
a good impression depends a great deal upon the 
person himself. What would be extravagance for 
one, might be the shrewdest kind of economy for 
[ 258 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


another. Personal ability, conditions, future pros- 
pects and other factors, in every individual case, 
must be considered. 

Personal appearance, however, is not so much 
a question of expense as of cleanliness and neat- 
ness. To be well groomed is not, necessarily, to 
be expensively dressed; but rather to be neatly and 
becomingly dressed, to have your nails free from 
dirt, your teeth clean, your hair combed, your face 
shaved; in short, to be scrupulously clean in your 
person and in your clothing. 

Because you cannot afford to buy new clothes 
is no excuse for having your old ones all covered 
with grease spots. There is no excuse for your 
going around wearing mourning under your finger 
nails just because you are poor. If you are having 
a hard time of it and looking for promotion, that 
is all the more reason that you should be doubly 
careful. 

If anybody can afford to be careless about his 
dress and appearance it is the man who has already 
“arrived.” Certainly you can’t afford to take 
chances with your little personal assets. You must 
make the most of them. The fact that you are 
poor and getting small wages is no reason why you 
should go about with three or four days’ beard on 
your face or with your shoes covered with dust. 
It would not take you over ten minutes in the 
morning to shave, and if you wish to look clean 
and to make people see that you respect yourself 
[ 259 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

and mean to be somebody you ought to shave very 
morning. It would take but a little time to brush 
your clothes and your shoes every day, but the 
difference it will make in your appearance will 
mean a great deal to you. A clean body, clean 
linen, a neat tie, a well-brushed suit of clothes, even 
if they are a bit w T orn, and well-polished shoes, 
would revolutionize many a man’s appearance. 

The higher animals set man an example in this 
respect. Singing birds are remarkable for their 
cleanliness. In fact, all birds are very particular 
to wash themselves often and carefully; and it has 
been noticed that the animals which are the clean- 
est are always to be distinguished by a gay and 
cheerful appearance or a certain air of tranquillity. 
The effect of cleanliness on mankind extends to 
one’s character, for virtue and filth can never be 
friends. Carelessness, indifference, slovenliness in 
dress and the care of the body indicate a defective 
ideal, a low order of ambition, a deficient self- 
respect. 

On the other hand, there is no doubt that we 
have a better opinion of ourselves and respect our- 
selves more when we keep ourselves scrupulously 
clean, when we groom ourselves carefully and dress 
neatly and becomingly. The consciousness of being 
every whit clean, in our body and in our clothing, 
has also a multiplying power on our ability, and in 
our chances for success. It increases self-confi- 
dence and stimulates ambition. 

[ 260 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


When our country selects an ambassador to 
represent it in foreign courts, it appoints a man 
who will really represent the country in a high- 
class way, both as to his personal appearance and 
the manner in which he lives. We know that our 
country will be judged by the sort of representa- 
tives it sends out, and we cannot afford to take 
any risks of being underestimated. 

The same principle applies to our big business 
houses. They cannot afford to send out high- 
priced salesmen who will make a bad impression, 
because the general reputation of their concern 
would be affected adversely; their business would 
suffer. 

Now, in a way, you as an individual put out a 
representative of yourself. Your appearance tells 
the world what you are trying to do. Everything 
about you is supposed to indicate your ambition, 
your aim. Good readers of character can tell at 
a glance what these are. 

When we go to the photographer’s to be photo- 
graphed, we are very careful to dress up, to groom 
ourselves perfectly, to be at our best, but photo- 
graphs so taken are seldom seen, and usually only 
by our friends. It is the snapshots that are taken 
of us many times a day that people see and judge 
us by. How often these snapshots ar-e taken when 
we are off guard, not expecting to be photographed ! 

It was a rainy day, for instance, and you thought 
you were not likely to run across any one for whose 

[ 261 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


opinion you cared very much, so you were not par- 
ticular about being perfectly groomed, or about 
what you wore ; perhaps you put on a soiled collar, 
wore a seedy old hat and coat, and did not polish 
your shoes; and, behold, the first person you ran 
across on the cars, on the street, or at lunch was 
some one you would not have had see you in such 
a predicament for anything. But he took a snap- 
shot of you and probably said to himself, “This fel- 
low is deteriorating. Something has happened to 
him. He is not as particular or as careful about 
his personal appearance as he used to be. There 
is some deteriorating process going on inside that 
shabby, soiled old suit of clothes.” 

The man trying to make his way in the world 
can never afford to take chances with his appear- 
ance. The only safe way is to mike it a life rule, 
always and everywhere to appear at your best, for 
you never can tell when some one may be taking 
a snapshot of you which later on will appear for 
or against you. 


[ 262 ] 


PUT YOUR BEST INTO 
EVERYTHING 


I hate a thing done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; 
if it be wrong, leave it undone. — Gilpin. 

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, 
or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he 
build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten 
path to his door. — Emerson. 

A WELL-KNOWN writer, whose sympa- 
thies are not with Germany in the great 
European conflict, said : “Gun for gun, man 
for man, army corps for army corps, suspender 
button for suspender button, cook oven for cook 
oven, transportation for transportation system, air- 
ship for airship, the Germans have demonstrated 
superiority over their foes.” 

What is the secret of this superiority? Thor- 
oughness. What is German “kultur” of which we 
have heard so much during the past two years?' 
Its foundation stone is thoroughness. It is exactly 
what the most progressive and most up-to-date and 
most-alive business men everywhere are after. 

It is this quality of thoroughness in everything 
they undertake — science, art, music, war, whatever 
it may be — that has, more than any other quality, 
helped raise Germany to its present position among 
the nations. 


1 263 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

An American expressing surprise to a German 
friend at the wonderful care and minute painstak- 
ing in detail apparent in some article of German 
manufacture, asked him how they could afford it, 
“Why, that’s the German way,” was the reply. 
He seemed to take it for granted that it was a 
national trait, and it is. 

In whatever they do, this man says, the Germans 
are always thinking of the final results. With them 
the question of cost does not come first. They will 
experiment for a long time on an article, when they 
know perfectly well that they may not get their 
money back for years. But that makes no differ- 
ence in their methods ; they will not slight the small- 
est detail for the sake of immediate temporary 
results. 

This thoroughness is ingrained in the German 
make-up. It is in their blood. Germans do not 
half do things. Their youths are taught to do 
everything to a finish. System, accuracy, order, 
thoroughness are drilled into them from infancy. 
The sloppy, systemless, go-as-you-please methods 
so common with American youths are unthinkable 
in Germany. This is indicated in some of the Ger- 
man advertisements for employees, in which you 
will read something to this effect: “Unless you are 
a thoroughbred in your line, that is, unless you are 
superbly equipped and prepared to do a scientific 
job, don’t apply.” 

The importance of thoroughness as a success fac- 
[ 264 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


tor has been emphasized by Germany in the war as 
it probably never was emphasized before in the 
history of the world. The accuracy and painstak- 
ing thoroughness of her methods, coupled with her 
preparedness, have enabled her to resist with 
remarkable success, aided by her weaker allies, the 
combined forces of her adversaries. Because of 
her thoroughness of organization her army has 
been able to move and work like a well-regulated 
machine. In its equipment she has not overlooked 
what to some would appear insignificant and unim- 
portant details. For instance, every pair of the 
millions of trousers furnished to the German troops 
has a double set of suspender buttons sewn on. 
Thus, if a button pulls out, the soldier merely 
hitches his “galluses” to the auxiliary button, with- 
out inconvenience or loss of time. 

A number of our factories have been forced to 
close since the war began because American chem- 
ical concerns have not been able to produce certain 
dyes, previously obtained from Germany. Why? 
It is not because they cannot command the 
resources that enabled Germany to produce 
them. No, it is because Americans lack the 
patience, the regard for minute details, the pains- 
taking accuracy and scientific methods of the 
Germans. 

All science, all business, is based on thorough- 
ness and accuracy. A slight error, a single mistake 
in a mathematical problem will make the correct 

[ 265 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

answer impossible. The slightest blunder in a 
chemical experiment will destroy the result. 

Business is a science. Right living is a science. 
Carelessness, blunders, superficiality, lack of sys- 
tem, slovenly methods, disorderliness, all look 
toward failure. No business, no life can be very 
successful without accuracy, thoroughness, pains- 
taking attention to details. 

Most men who have made their mark, not even 
excepting geniuses, have taken infinite pains with 
their work. Indeed there is no better substitute 
for genius than painstaking thoroughness. 

I was much impressed with its possibilities when 
visiting Luther Burbank, the marvelous horticul- 
tural wizard, at his home in Santa Rosa, Califor- 
nia. In producing his princess berry, a cross 
between a blackberry and a Siberian raspberry, 
Mr. Burbank destroyed forty thousand hybridized 
seedlings before he obtained one that would breed 
to suit him. 

“Most of my plants,” he said, “are raised for 
the brush pile.” Scarcely one plant out of ten 
thousand which he raises annually in his nursery 
survives. They are produced for the purpose of 
experiment. He has collected more than fifteen 
hundred varieties of the cactus in different parts of 
the world and has spent ten years experimenting, 
cultivating and educating this plant, to get rid of 
its spines, so that it could be utilized as a food for 
animals. 


[ 266 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Mr. Burbank told me that in producing his 
famous white blackberry he examined twenty-five 
thousand blackberry bushes to select berries which 
in ripening did not become pure black. He wanted 
a bush on which the green changed to complete 
white. 

Through patience and a genius for painstaking, 
Mr. Burbank has made more changes, developed 
more improvements and new varieties in fruits and 
flowers, than were ever before effected in the his- 
tory of horticulture. 

Authors who have written books that will live 
have thrown away many times as much material as 
they used. I know an author who not only 
rewrites his manuscript a great many times before 
it is published, but he writes enough for three or 
four volumes in order that he can have a large 
variety for selection. He says a man must write 
material for a good many books to get enough for 
one, and his advice to young authors is, “Never be 
afraid of writing too much, because it is compara- 
tively easy to cut down, and although it may cause 
pain to write and throw away what is considered 
good material, yet the public, having never seen it, 
will not miss it, and w’hat is retained will amply 
pay for what is lost.” 

The great work of life is to raise the value of 
whatever passes through our hands. The effect of 
always doing one’s best, even in the smallest things, 
greatly raises the standard of the whole life. The 

[ 267 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

constant effort to measure up to something higher 
is a perpetual tonic to the mind and gives an uplift 
to the ordinary routine of every day. 

The entire man or woman grows, expands, 
rapidly when one is trying to do one’s level best, 
to stamp quality on everything one does, to leave 
the trademark of excellence upon everything one 
touches. 

There is a divine force in longing and working 
for betterment, in hungering for excellence. No 
matter how apparently discouraging the outlook, 
there is always hope for the life that looks up, 
thinks up, works up. 

“Strive, and do your best, always your best, 
never relax in your efforts or be satisfied with less 
than your best; that is the way to success,” said a 
great sculptor recently, in speaking to a young 
artist of his work. 

If you would make the most of yourself, resolve 
at the very outset of your career to have nothing to 
do with anything that is second class or poor, with 
inferiority. You cannot afford it. It is too costly. 
Make up your mind that everything you touch 
must bear the stamp of excellence before it goes 
out of your hands; that you will not take chances 
on allowing a poor job to bob up in future years 
as a witness against you, to trip you up, to mar 
your reputation. 

Everything half-done, every botched or slipshod 
piece of work which goes through your hands dulls 
1 268 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


your ideals. You may feel no deterioration at the 
time, but there is a speck already and it will in- 
crease until, like a rotten speck in an apple, it 
affects the whole life. 

Thoroughness in work is the foundation of char- 
acter. The influence upon one’s life of always ex- 
pecting and demanding the best effort of one’s self 
can not be measured. 

There is, in the upward struggle involved in 
giving one’s best to what one is doing, something 
that enlists and develops the highest faculties and 
calls out the truest and noblest qualities. 

In an address to an audience of boys in New 
York City, Charles M. Schwab said, “No matter 
what business you enter, the essential feature to 
success is that you perform your tasks better than 
anybody else. This alone will command attention. 
Everybody is expected to do his duty, but the boy 
or man who does a little more is certain of promo- 
tion.” 

Everybody believes in the young man who is 
doing things thoroughly, as well as they can be 
done. His very reputation for putting his work 
through in an efficient, masterly way inspires confi- 
dence. People say, “Just keep your eyes on that 
fellow. He is going to make a record. He is a 
‘comer,’ a ‘cracker-jack’!” 

The employee who is armed with accuracy and 
is a good worker is sure to succeed, because the 
quality of thoroughness always accompanies other 

[ 269 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


success and efficiency qualities, whereas inaccuracy, 
the blundering habit, mental uncertainty, accom- 
pany qualities which characterize mediocrity and 
failure. 

No matter who else is out of employment the 
one who does things to a finish, who has the repu- 
tation of stamping character upon everything that 
passes through his hands, is never long out of 
work. There is never a day in a business office, 
shop, or factory when painstaking accuracy is not 
at a premium. It is astonishing what a tremendous 
difference there is between the earning power of a 
man who does things carelessly or even pretty well, 
and that of one who does them as well as they can 
be done, who is painstaking and thoroughly com- 
petent. 

No man who has tasted the joys of a superbly 
done job can ever again content himself with sec- 
ond-rate results. He will never again stoop to 
drag himself through the mire of pretense and 
counterfeit or be satisfied with slipshod, slovenly 
work. Veblen speaks of the “instinct of workman- 
ship” as the instinctive intolerance of anything less 
than the best. There is only one road that the 
“man who knows how,” the artist, can afford to 
travel and that is the straight and narrow one to- 
wards perfection. 

Just the little difference between fairly good 
work and a superbly done job, between pretty fair 
and excellent, has made all the difference to many 
[ 270 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


men and women between mediocrity and a life of 
distinction. 

We are here to make our contribution to the 
world, and it should be something worth while. 
Every man’s life work can and ought to be a 
masterpiece. He who stamps his trademark of 
superiority upon everything that passes through 
his hands, who does everything to a finish, no mat- 
ter how lowly his calling, he is an artist. He needs 
no copyright or other protection for his work. Its 
excellence is stamped with his individuality. 

A Stradivarius violin is known to this day by its 
superiority. Some of these violins are worth from 
three to five thousand dollars. Why? Because 
into every detail of his work Stradivarius put his 
very soul, his joyous creative effort. This is why 
the world does him honor. 

If you will analyze the career of the young man 
who is pushing his way to the front, you will find 
that one of the things which distinguishes him 
from the multitude of those around him is not that 
he does unusual things which nobody else attempts, 
but that he does superbly that which others do in- 
differently, does to a complete finish what others 
leave unfinished. In short, he is efficient in what- 
ever he undertakes to do. 

“Do everything to a complete finish” has been 
the motto of many a successful man. 

I never knew a person who in youth formed the 
habit of excellence, the upward-looking, upward- 

[ 271 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


striving habit, who failed. It is the people who 
disregard their ideals, who distort them by half- 
doing things, by indolent, slipshod habits, that 
never get anywhere in the world. 

I know men who cannot saw a board straight, 
or drive a nail true, who jumble everything they 
touch, and are always blundering because they 
never thought it worth while to learn to do things 
carefully or perfectly. Yet these men wonder why 
they are not successful ! 

The trouble with most of us is that we empha- 
size quantity more than quality in our work. Big- 
ness, rather than perfection, seems to be our aim. 
Many people think that success consists in doing 
some big things, but they find that when they at- 
tempt a big thing, they have incapacitated them- 
selves from doing it superbly by the habit of doing 
seemingly small things indifferently or in a slip- 
shod, slovenly manner. How often we hear young 
people say, “Oh, that is good enough ; what is the 
use of spending so much time on a little thing like 
that?” “Oh, that’s good enough” has spoiled 
many a career because it was the first step towards 
deterioration. 

A clerk in a store said he did not try to do his 
best because he did not get much pay. Needless 
to say this youth did not keep his job very long. 
This doing poor work because it does not pay 
much is just what keeps thousands of people from 
getting on in the world. Work is a question of 
[ 272 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


character, not of remuneration. One has no right 
to demoralize his character by doing slovenly or 
botched work simply because he is not paid much. 
The employee has something at stake besides his 
salary. Character, manhood and womanhood are 
at stake, compared with which salary is nothing. 

Music students often think that if they keep 
practising about so much every day, they will 
ultimately make musicians, even if they are not so 
very particular and exacting and painstaking about 
their work. The same is true of young artists and 
young people in trades and professions. But prac- 
tising without infinite painstaking is often worse 
than idleness, because we form habits of inac- 
curacy, slovenly habits, which are fatal to all ex- 
cellence, and which may thwart our very life 
ambition. 

People who never try to do a thing as well as 
they can, never make much of their lives. Doing 
a thing over and over again in a particular way 
renders it improbable that it will ever be done in 
any other way. Half-hearted work, slipshod 
methods, so completely demoralize the human ma- 
chine that it is unable to turn out good work there- 
after. Like a chronometer which has once come in 
contact with a powerful dynamo, it becomes so de- 
moralized that it never keeps good time again. It 
looks just the same. You cannot find out where the 
trouble is by taking it apart. It simply does not 
keep good time. Its character has been changed. 
[ 273 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

It has been magnetized. Oftentimes a boy who 
has been obedient, industrious, studious, all at once 
seems to be demoralized. Some evil magnetism 
has touched his life, so that he no longer keeps 
good time, morally. And he will not until this 
magnetic influence is withdrawn. The boy has 
been too near the dynamo of vice. The needle of 
his compass has been deflected from the star of his 
purpose, as is the compass of a ship in the presence 
of iron or steel. 

There is something within us which responds 
with an “Amen” to the thing done just right. We 
are uplifted with a sense of fulfillment of duty, 
which is a great mental and moral tonic. We think 
more of ourselves after getting the approval of 
that “still, small voice” within. It increases self- 
respect, it enlarges the capacity for doing things 
and encourages one to push ahead toward larger 
triumphs. There is then no protest in the faculties. 
They all give their approval, and we feel their con- 
gratulations. A warmth and a glory surge through 
one’s being and give a powerful stimulus to greater 
endeavor. 

I have a friend who when a boy, struggling to 
get a start in the world, was often laughed at by 
his fellow workers for taking so much pains with 
his work. They would say to him long before he 
had finished a piece of work, “Oh, what’s the use 
of taking so much pains. That’s good enough. Let 
it go and have done with it.” But it was not “good 
[ 274 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


enough” for him; and just because it was not, just 
because he refused to allow any work to go out of 
his hands until he had put the hallmark of his char- 
acter upon it, stamped it with excellence, he is a 
rich and powerful man to-day, while his com- 
panions who were satisfied with “good enough” 
have never been heard from outside of the little 
New England town where they live. 

Your reward will be in proportion to your effort. 
All that is rotten and inferior in your work will be 
a perpetual witness against you. With a blabbing 
tongue it will tell the story of half-hearted or 
shiftless endeavor. Every botched job, every 
half-finished task will always be bobbing up 
somewhere in your after life to mortify and defeat 
you. 

On the other hand, as a successful manufacturer 
says : “If you make a good pin, you will earn more 
money than if you make a bad steam engine.” 
Emerson said, “If a man can write a better book, 
preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse- 
trap than his neighbor, though he build his house 
in the woods, the world will make a path to his 
door.” 

There is no secret in doing good work. Every 
one can be a master in his own line if he is willing 
to take pains, and the results are certain. The 
reward of thoroughness and efficiency comes to all 
who persevere to the end. It comes not only in 
material success, but in the successful life, the real- 

[ 275 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


ization of the victory scored, in the satisfaction 
of achievement, in the character formed. 

“While man is acting on the world through 
work, work is perpetually reacting on man,” says 
Edwin Markham. A boy learning to saw a 
straight line is also learning to tell the truth. While 
discovering the beauties and equities of a sym- 
metrical leaf, he is uncovering in his soul the prin- 
ciples of justice. While a stone mason is shaping 
a block of granite with conscious care, he is at the 
same moment shaping the inward and mystic stone 
of character. A man who puts his soul into his 
work also puts his work into his soul. 

“Verily, so close is work to men that we are told 
in a sacred scripture that ‘their works do follow 
them’ even to eternity. Let us beware, comrades, 
how we do our work, for work carries fate.” 


c 276 ] 


THE MAN WITH INITIATIVE 


There is always a place for the man with initiative. 

Do not be afraid to let yourself out. Originality is power ; 
imitation is death. 

The man who would succeed to-day in any marked way 
must have initiative, he must be self-reliant, inventive, origi- 
nal. 

The man who dares to think his own thought and origi- 
nate his own method, who is not afraid to be himself, and 
is not a copy of some one else, quickly gets recognition. 

There are ten thousand who can follow to one who can 
lead; but the whole world is hunting for the man who can 
step out of the crowd and do the unusual, the original, the in- 
dividual thing, the man who can deliver the goods. 

E LBERT HUBBARD once said: “Initiative 
is doing what needs to be done without 
being told.” It is only now and then an 
employee is inclined to go ahead without being 
told; is on the lookout for something in his work 
which he can improve, some way of simplifying 
processes, of shortening methods, some more effec- 
tive way of doing things. The habit of always 
working under instructions, of waiting to be told 
what to do, waiting for somebody to begin a thing 
which we are to follow up, is paralyzing to great 
achievement. 

It has been said that the world reserves its big 

1 277 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

prizes for but one thing, — initiative. Initiative 
opens the door to the place above us. Those who 
wait for fate, or luck, or opportunity, to lead the 
way, never get very far in this world, but the man 
with initiative fares forth and arrives. I know of 
no one thing outside of honesty that plays such a 
prominent part in one’s success in life as vigorous 
initiative. The man who has the courage to begin 
things and the persistency to finish them is in 
demand everywhere. 

Yet how often we meet people who are afraid to 
begin, afraid to start anything, although they may 
feel confident they are capable of carrying it out 
successfully ! 

Many men and women seem incapable of self- 
propulsion. They depend upon somebody to 
manipulate them, to lead them, to point the way, 
to blaze the path. They seem incapable of setting 
themselves to work, incapable of self-direction. 

Such people are like the birds and the fish, which 
live in flocks and schools and are seldom seen alone, 
but follow a leader. A mackerrel would be lost 
without its school. Watch a flock of birds flying 
south in the autumn. Only one of them apparently 
does any independent thinking, and all the rest fly 
in the direction he is leading. 

Many a man is unsuccessful in life simply 
because he is one of a flock or herd and follows his 
leader. He does not do his own thinking; he lets 
some one else think for him. 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Fortunately for the world, however, there are 
some men too great to go in flocks, too great to 
follow. There are many men large enough to do 
their own thinking, to make a program and follow 
it out. 

When General Leonard Wood, head of the 
United States Army, was an interne in the City 
Hospital of Boston, a child was brought into the 
hospital who was in great danger of choking to 
death. For an interne to perform an operation 
without the consent of the house surgeon was 
against the hospital rules, but young Wood did not 
wait for the usual red tape. He operated on the 
child quickly, and saved its life. He was severely 
reprimanded and, if I remember correctly, expelled 
for this violation of rules, but his prompt action 
had saved a life, and had shown that the young 
physician could decide and act quickly on his 
own responsibility. It was this very ability to act 
quickly in an emergency which attracted President 
Roosevelt, who helped him to his unprecedented 
rise from an assistant army surgeon in a Western 
military camp to ’the head of the United States 
Army. 

One of the best surgeons I ever knew, in an 
emergency case in Italy, in a remote part of the 
country where he could not get any instruments, 
performed a delicate operation on a woman with 
an instrument which he manufactured himself in 
a blacksmith shop. If only an ordinary surgeon 

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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


had been present, the probabilities are that the 
woman would have died before they could have 
got her back to civilization. 

A poor workman is always excusing his poor 
work and his lack of skill as due to poor tools, 
while the really skilled workman would do good 
work with almost any kind of tools. It is 
the resourceful man that is in demand everywhere, 
the man who can see a way out in an emergency 
or in a critical situation, when others stand dumb 
and paralyzed. I have been present at accidents 
in city streets when hundreds of people would 
crowd about and stare, helpless, and powerless to 
act. Perhaps only one man or woman in a whole 
crowd of this sort was equal to the emergency — 
knew what to do and promptly did it. 

The world makes room for the man with ini- 
tiative, who has the courage and boldness to carry 
out a thing; the man who can grasp a new situa- 
tion or meet an emergency without being dazed 
by it. The independent, self-reliant man, who 
never asks what others have done in a similar 
instance, but maps out his course independently; 
the man of ideas, who can devise new methods, 
organize new ways of doing things, who is bigger 
than precedent, and can step out of the crowd and 
act, is in demand everywhere. 

Many people get the impression that men of 
great ability have a sort of success instinct to do 
the right thing at the proper time. As a matter 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


of fact, every leader, every great executive, makes 
many mistakes — but he acts. 

A successful business friend has told me that 
if four out of five things he attempts fail and the 
fifth one is a success, he feels that he is getting 
ahead. 

A lot of people go through life doing little 
things, because there is something which paralyzes 
their initiative; they do not dare undertake any- 
thing important. 

If you lack initiative, you will always be in the 
useless position of an automobile with the motor 
left out. You may make a splendid appearance, 
but you cannot move unless somebody pushes or 
pulls you. 

A great many people remain trailers all their 
lives, followers of others, echoes instead of reali- 
ties, because their distinctive qualities, their origi- 
nal powers, were not developed, called out, or 
encouraged in their early years. The best thing to 
develop in a youth is his power of self-locomotion, 
his power of self-movement, to develop the great 
force motor in him, without which all other 
acquirements and qualities are practically value- 
less. 

The great majority of young men and women 
to-day who stand tiptoe on the threshold of an 
active career, including thousands of college grad- 
uates, hardly know what the word initiative means. 
The most of them will follow the beaten paths 
[ z8i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


which others have made; only now and then there 
will be a new path blazer, a precedent breaker. 

The fatal lack in our educational system is that 
the schools and the colleges do not train the young 
in constructive thinking; they are not taught the 
value of mental creation; they do not know how 
to make or how to carry out a program. 

This is why the office boy so often turns out 
better than the college youth. The former is all 
the time learning to do things, to undertake things, 
thus he develops his initiative, while the student is 
absorbing knowledge, taking things into his mind, 
stilting his memory, and does not have practical 
experience in creating or producing, in actually 
doing things. 

College boys who pay their way often turn out 
better in life, even when they rank lower in their 
studies, than others whose very way is paid for 
them. Take, for example, the boy who goes can- 
vassing or selling goods during his vacation. He 
naturally develops his initiative more in a single 
summer than the boy whose expenses are paid for 
him does in a whole college course. 

When a student is out selling things he finds 
he is facing a new proposition, a new world. He 
cannot go to his professor for assistance. He has 
to stand alone. He has to use his ingenuity and 
his brain, and his pride and vanity are aroused. 
He knows that if he fails he is going to be laughed 
at, humiliated, and he gradually develops the 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


power to do things, develops a positive mentality. 

A weak initiative comes from weak, negative 
thinking. If children were only taught how to 
think constructively, how to develop a positive 
mentality, their initiative would naturally be vigor- 
ous and strong. 

If I were president of a college the first thing I 
should do would be to establish an initiative chair, 
and I would place in it a professor who would 
train the students in the art of getting on in the 
world, who would teach them how to use their fac- 
ulties, how to develop the qualities that win. 

One professor in a college like James J. Hill, 
Marshall Field, or John Wianamaker could do 
marvelous good in the way of teaching students 
how they can succeed in life, showing them what 
a tremendous part initiative plays in the successful 
career, and how to develop it, teaching them the 
secret of achievement, the science of success. 

To develop initiative you must learn to act, for 
initiative is vigorous action. You must learn to 
decide and to make your decision final. No man 
can develop initiative when he is continually wa- 
vering, reconsidering. You will find that if you 
acquire the habit of final and vigorous decision, 
never allowing yourself to take up matters for 
reconsideration which have once been disposed of, 
it will greatly develop your initiative and be a won- 
derful help to you. 

I have in mind a friend in New York who has 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

tremendous ability. Every time I talk with him 
he convinces me that he is just about to do some 
great thing. His Websterian brain radiates con- 
viction, and everybody who has known him has 
been waiting for many years for him to do some 
of the big things which his superb ability has 
promised. But there is one thing that is keeping 
him back; he doesn’t dare to begin the things that 
everybody believes he could carry out ; he somehow 
has a terror of launching out and committing him- 
self unreservedly to his ambition. He believes he 
can do the things that he is ambitious to do, but 
he does not go at them. He lacks projectile power. 
If somebody would give him a push or something 
should happen to force him into action, everybody 
who knows him believes he would make a great 
success, but he can’t ,seem to start. He is so afraid 
that something will happen — he might make a fail- 
ure and he would be humiliated and mortified to 
have to back out. 

When we analyze this man we find that the root 
of his trouble is lack of final decision. He will 
decide perhaps to-day to do a thing, he will resolve 
to begin it at once, and then he feels terrified at 
the responsibility; doubt rises in his mind and he 
begins to waver and reconsider, and then he is lost, 
until another wave of enthusiasm rushes through 
his brain and he determines again to launch out, 
but he does not, and now he is approaching an 
age when it is very doubtful whether he ever will 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


attempt to do what he has the ability to accom- 
lish. Although he has been a great many years 
preparing for the launching of his life ship it is 
still in dry dock, and it may never see the ocean. 

Emerson says: “The law of nature is, Do the 
thing and you shall have the power; but they who 
do not the thing have not the power.” Initiative 
grows with use. 

Fear is one of the worst enemies of initiative; it 
would paralyze even the initiative of a Columbus. 
Multitudes of people, if they could get rid of the 
chronic fear and worry which paralyzes their 
initiative, could do wonderful things. Anxiety, 
jealousy, morbid moods, over-sensitiveness, dis- 
couragement, despondency, blues, all these things 
tend to darken the initiative, so that we do not 
attempt many things we might carry out success- 
fully. Mrs. Grundy has paralyzed the initiative of 
a vast multitude of people. We are so afraid that 
something might happen to our undertaking, it 
might not be successful, and then people would 
laugh at us or ridicule us. 

We are not quite sure we have the ability to 
do what we long to do, and if we should not hap- 
pen to be successful then people would say : “Well, 
I did not believe he could do it. He has not the 
ability.” 

I have known several men who have suffered 
from lack of confidence and fear of failure when- 
ever they have attempted to act on their own ini- 

[ 285 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

tiative, to get great benefit from self-encourage- 
ment through suggestion. 

Self-assertion, the spirit of independence, the 
courage, the manhood which respects its own pow- 
ers and is determined to rely upon them, and belief 
in one’s self, the qualities which characterize a 
leader, can be cultivated by every human being. 

Every man who has made his mark on the world 
has found his projectile power inside of him. 
There sleeps the giant powder which will project 
you to your goal. Do not look to others to push 
you, to give you a pull or use their influence. Your 
resources, your assets, are right inside of you ; they 
are nowhere else. 

The only help that young Woolworth, the 
founder of the five and ten cent stores throughout 
the country, got was three hundred dollars he bor- 
rowed to start in business with. When as a boy 
he asked his employer, a country storekeeper, to 
let him collect on a table all of the things that were 
sold for five and ten cents to see if he could not 
increase their sale by calling people’s attention to 
them, he was finding expression for the giant pow- 
der pent up inside of him. 

If you feel paralyzed by the very responsibility 
of deciding things, beginning_.things of your own 
accord, make up your mind that, if you ever are to 
amount to anything, you must strangle this fault. 
The way to do this is to start out every morn- 
ing with the grim resolution not to allow yourself, 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


during the day, to waver, to wait for somebody to 
start things and show you the way. Resolve that 
during the day you are going to be a pusher, a 
leader; that you are not going to be a trailer, not 
going to wait for somebody else to tell you what 
to do and how to do it. You are going to take the 
initiative, start things yourself, and put them 
through without advice. 

Every morning say to yourself: “Now, to-day 
I am going to be a Theodore Roosevelt,” (or a 
Carnegie, or a Rockfeller, or some one else who 
has had the reputation for beginning things with 
vigor and pushing them to a finish with persistency 
and grit). You will be surprised to see how the 
bug-bear of beginning things will vanish. 

What a sorry sight is a man with great possi- 
bilities of leadership following somebody else all 
his life, seeking the advice of others when he is 
amply able to give it, and never daring to venture 
on his own judgment, because he has always leaned 
upon others, or depended upon some one else to 
lead the way ! His common sense and power of 
independent decision, his strongest inherent quali- 
ties, lie dormant within him. He is doing the work 
of a pigmy when he has the undeveloped capabili- 
ties of a giant. 

If you want to be an achiever, to have the power 
to do things, just imagine yourself a Robinson 
Crusoe, cast on a desert island, with no tools, no 
machines, nothing to work with except your hands 

[ 287 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 

and brain. What you eat and what you wear, every 
necessity of life, must be the result of your own 
thinking, the offspring of your own brain, the work 
of your own hands. There is plenty of material 
on your island, from which may be made every- 
thing of which you can think, but there is no one 
to help you fashion it to human use. That is the 
problem you yourself must work out. It will all 
depend upon yourself whether you live in a hovel 
or in a palace on your island, whether you surround 
yourself with beauty or with ugliness. 

Every human being at the outset of his career 
is in reality placed on such an island as this, and 
his little world must be of his own building. 

He who strikes out boldly, who does not wait 
for time or tide, who does not sit on the stone of 
Fate, waiting for an opportunity to come along, 
who goes through obstacles and not over or around 
them, who is not waiting for others to speak, think, 
or act, is the man who is going to win in these 
strenuous days. There is a great demand for the 
self-poised man — the man who is not afraid of 
himself, who, if he cannot say “I will,” at least 
can say “I will try.” 

The man who cuts his way through the world 
to-day may not be a scholar; he may not be clever; 
but he must have that persistent determination that 
knows no retreat; that plus-energy which cannot 
be repelled; that courage which never falters or 
cringes. He must be a man with initiative. 

[ 288 ] 


THE CLIMBING HABIT 


“The youth who doesn’t look up will look down, and the 
spirit that does not soar is destined to grovel.” 

W HEN a man who is said to be the highest 
salaried official in the United States was 
asked to give the secret of his success, he 
replied, “I haven’t succeeded. No real man ever 
succeeds. There is always a larger goal ahead.” 

It is the small man who succeeds in his own esti- 
mation. Really great men never reach their goal, 
because they are constantly pushing their horizon 
out further and further, getting a broader vision, 
a larger outlook, and their ambition grows with 
their achievement. 

Don’t kill the climbing instinct implanted in you 
by the Creator by limiting your ambition to a low 
aim. You can only grow by reaching up to the 
thing above you. 

If you are getting a fair salary in a mediocre 
position there is danger of hypnotizing yourself 
into the belief that there is no need to exert your- 
self very much to get up higher. There is danger 
of limiting your ambition so that you will be half 
content to remain a perpetual clerk when you have 
the ability to do much better. 

[ 289 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


This satisfaction with the lesser when the great- 
er is possible often comes from relatives or friends 
telling you that you are doing well, and that you 
would better let well enough alone. These advisers 
say: “Don’t take chances with a certainty. It is 
true you are not getting a very big salary, but it is 
a sure thing, and if you give it up with the hope of 
something better you may do worse.” 

Very few of us realize how dependent our 
growth is on some special stimulus. Every act 
must have a motive. We do nothing outside of our 
automatic habitual acts without an underlying mo- 
tive. Perhaps the strongest life motive of the 
average man is that which comes from his desire 
to get up in the world. 

There was a force behind Lincoln which drove 
him from a log cabin up to the White House. 
There was a vision of the North Pole which 
haunted Peary, filled him with ambition to climb 
to the earth’s uttermost boundary, and finally drove 
him, after repeated failures, to the Pole. The 
same indomitable inner force urged the despised 
young Jew, Benjamin Disraeli, to push his way up 
through the lower classes in England, up through 
the middle classes, up through the upper classes, 
until he stood a master, self-poised upon the top- 
most round of political and social power, the prime 
minister of the greatest country in the world. 

The story of those men is the same at bottom as 
that of every man who has attained greatness. 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


They were continually urged forward and upward 
by some inward prompting they could not resist. 

This instinctive impulse to keep pushing on and 
up is the most curious and the most interesting 
thing in the human life. It exists in every normal 
human being, and is just as pronounced and as real 
as the instinct of self-preservation. Upon this 
climbing instinct rests the destiny of the race. 
Without it men would still be savages. It is this 
incessant urge to go on and up, to climb, that has 
educated the brute out of man and lifted him from 
the Hottentot to the Gladstones and the Lincolns. 
But for this urge he would still be living in caves 
and huts. Civilization, as we know it, would not 
exist. There would be no great cities, no great 
factories, no railroads, no steamships, no beautiful 
homes or parks, pictures, sculpture or books, but 
for this mysterious urge which we call ambition, 
aspiration. This incessant inward prompting, call 
it ambition or what we will, this something which 
pushes men to their goal, is the expression in man 
of the universal force of evolution which is flowing 
Godward. It is a part of the great cosmic plan 
of creation. We do not create this urge, we do not 
manufacture it; it does not come by training. Every 
normal person feels this imperious must which is 
back of the flesh, but not of it, this internal urge 
which is ever pushing us on, even at the cost of our 
own discomfort and sacrifice. 

It is a part of every atom, for all atoms are 

1 291 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

alive, and this upward impulse is in every one of 
them. It is a part of the great cosmic, intelligent 
urge, which is pushing every particle of matter to- 
wards the top, for ultimately every atom will 
arrive at mind and think. 

Did you ever ask yourself the meaning of all 
these great seething masses of people, who are 
struggling and striving for wealth, for place and 
power; what is back of all this buying and selling, 
all this manufacturing and producing, all this toil 
and effort, this strenuous human exertion? Whence 
comes the overmastering impulse which pushes 
human beings on, each to his individual goal? 
What does ambition mean? What is all the strug- 
gling and striving for? Why is it necessary for 
human beings to spend their lives in hard work? 

There must be a profound significance, a master 
object back of it all. This great human current of 
ambition must be running toward some particular 
end. There certainly must be some higher mean- 
ing than making a living for the animal man, some- 
thing besides food and clothing and housing human 
beings in the vast scheme of man’s activities. 

We know that God could have made bread all 
ready for use on trees ; that He could have given us 
a climate which would render much of any housing 
unnecessary; He could have given us soil which 
would have produced abundantly with very little 
help from human toil, but the infinite plan for us 
was something much higher than making a living, 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and that was, making a life, and so developing man 
to his highest power. 

Activity is the law of growth; effort the only 
means of improvement. Wherever men have 
obeyed their lower nature and ceased to struggle 
to better their condition, they have deteriorated 
physically, mentally, and morally; while, just in 
proportion as they have striven honestly and in- 
sistently to improve their situation, they have de- 
veloped a larger and nobler human type. 

Ambition is usually a good deal of a mystery to 
its possessor. We do not know always where the 
following of its call will lead us, but we do know T 
this, that when we follow, when we put ourselves 
in a position to give it the best and the freest scope 
it will lead us to the highest self-expression of 
which we are capable, and will give us the greatest 
satisfaction. We know that by being loyal to ambi- 
tion and doing our best to follow it in its normal, 
wholesome state, when not perverted by selfishness, 
by love of ease or self-gratification, it will lead to 
our best and highest welfare. We know, too, that 
when our ambition is perverted to base ends our 
lives go all awry; when we are false to the higher 
voice within us, we are discontented, unhappy, in- 
efficient, and our lives are ineffective. 

If we could explain just what ambition is, we 
could explain the mystery of the universe. But we 
do know the results of striving to attain it. We 
know that the more regular and scientific our liv- 

[ 293 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


in g, the more persistent our habits of industry, the 
greater our activity in doing things worth while, 
the greater our satisfaction, and the larger and 
grander human beings we become. 

We have found by centuries of experiment that 
the only way to develop the larger, higher, finer 
human type is the way of toil and ceaseless activity. 
But for this great necessity of perpetual industry, 
the incessant striving to better our condition, we 
should be to-day a race of undeveloped pygmies. 
The most marked characteristic of men who have 
done the grandest work for humanity has been 
loyalty to their ambition. 

No one yet knows the real meaning of electricity 
or what it is, but we have found that by obeying 
its laws we get most beneficent results. It has be- 
come the great servant of humanity and is fast 
emancipating man from drudgery. While we do 
not know the full meaning of the human struggle 
for existence, for human betterment, we do know 
that honest, persistent endeavor not only leads to 
better material conditions, more comforts, more 
luxuries, more refinement and culture, but also 
makes larger and better men and women. 

We are beginning to realize that ambition is just 
as real a force as electricity. We are finding that 
the man who has an energetic, vigorous ambition 
generates an actual force which is as superior to 
that of the man with a weak, halting, intermittent 
ambition as the force of a great river is to that of 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


a shallow brook. It is the man who is ambitious 
and determined to get on, and who has taken an 
oath to himself that he is going to get up in the 
world, stand for something, be somebody and 
achieve something, that does great things. 

Yes, ambition is not only a real force, but it is 
real and powerful just in proportion to its intensity 
and persistency.. Ambition is something more than 
idle dreaming; it is the substance of things ex- 
pected. There is a divinity, a reality, a prophecy 
in our desires and longings. 

Because there is no limit to human growth there 
is no satisfying human ambition' — man’s highest 
aspiration. When we reach the height which looks 
so attractive from below, we find our new position 
as unsatisfying as the old, and a perpetual call to 
go higher still rings in our ears. That mysterious 
urge within us never allows us to rest but is always 
disturbing, prodding us for our good. No matter 
how high we may climb in our achievement, there 
is something which seems to call down from a still 
higher eminence, “Excelsior! Excelsior!” “Come 
up higher.” 

It is true that if a man persistently, year in and 
year out, refuses to work out his high destiny, in- 
sists upon being a nobody, a shirk, the urge of 
ambition becomes less and less insistent and its 
voice finally grows too faint to make itself heard. 

On every hand we see young men who started 
out with brilliant prospects when they left college ; 

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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


their friends predicted great things for them, but 
somehow or other, the enthusiasm of their school 
or college days has oozed out. The continual sug- 
gestion of possibility which came to them from 
their school environment, the contagion from the 
ambitious spirit all about them, seemed then to 
multiply their prospects, to magnify their ability 
and to stir up their ambition until they really 
thought they were going to amount to something 
in the world, were going to accomplish something; 
but after they got away from the battery charging 
institutions they gradually lost their enthusiasm; 
their ambition dwindled and they began to doubt 
whether they could realize the dreams which 
haunted them in their college days. And so, little 
by little, their ambitious dreams faded, and they 
resigned themselves to mediocrity or hopeless 
failure. 

No matter how high our youthful ambition, it is 
very easy to let it wane, to allow our standards to 
drop. The moment we cease to brace ourselves 
up, to watch ourselves, we begin to deteriorate, 
just as a child does when its mother ceases to pay 
strict attention to it, lets it have its own way. The 
tendency of the majority at every stage of existence 
is to go along the line of least resistance, to take 
the easiest way. 

The race instinct to climb is continually at war 
with the lower nature which would drag it down. 
Even the noblest beings are not free from this 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


struggle of the higher with the lower which goes 
on ceaselessly throughout nature. It is the triumph 
over the lower that keeps the race on the ascent. 

Said Professor William James, “If this life is 
not a real fight in which something is eternally 
gained for the universe, it is no better than a game 
of private theatricals. But it feels like a real fight, 
as if there were something really wild in the uni- 
verse, which we with our idealities and faithfulness 
are needed to reform.” 

There is no more real fight than that which is 
being waged perpetually between man’s higher and 
lower nature ; we must be perpetually on our guard 
or the lower will win. There is a schoolmaster in 
each one of us, it is true, but the moment the school- 
master gets slack we begin to deteriorate. If we 
are not continually on the alert our ambition begins 
to sag, and before we realize it we are in a rut. 

We do our most effective work in our struggle 
to get what we are after, to arrive at the goal of 
our ambition. We make our greatest effort, our 
most strenuous endeavor, while we are climbing, 
not after we have arrived at our goal. This is one 
reason why rich men’s sons rarely achieve any 
great personal success. They lack the climbing mo- 
tive, that tremendous urge, the prodding of ambi- 
tion, which drives us on to achieve what we desire. 
Ambition is the leader of all great achievement. 
It is the forerunner which goes ahead and clears a 
way for the other faculties. It is the prod which 
[ 297 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


urges men out of their lethargy, overcomes their 
inertia. It is what keeps us to our task, but for it 
we would quit work and lie down. But for ambi- 
tion we should be a sorry lot. 

Unless you are inspired by a great purpose, a 
resolute determination to make your life count, you 
will not make much of an impression upon the 
world about you. The difference in the quantity 
and quality of success is largely one of ambition 
and determination. If you lack these you must 
cultivate them vigorously, persistently, or you will 
be a nobody. I have never known any one to 
amount to much who did not have an ambition to 
make a place for himself in the world, and who did 
not keep his purpose alive by the constant struggle 
to reach his goal. The moment ambition sags, we 
lose the force that propels us; and once our pro- 
pelling power is gone we drift with the tide of cir- 
cumstances. 


[ 298 ] 


ENTHUSIASM, THE MIRACLE 
WORKER 


He did it with all his heart and prospered. 

II Chronicles. 

What are hardships, ridicule, persecution, toil, sickness, 
to the soul throbbing with an over-mastering enthusiasm? 

Every great and commanding movement in the annals of 
the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was 
ever achieved without it. 

P ASTEUR, the great scientist and head of the 
Pasteur Institute in Paris, as he left his 
work one night was heard to say : “Ah, seven 
hours to wait before I can go back to the labora- 
tory !” 

This is the spirit that wins, the enthusiasm 
which takes the drudgery out of the hardest work 
and makes it a delight. 

Some time ago I read about a colored man 
who was sitting in the shade of a tree while 
his hoe was lying idle and the weeds were 
thick among the vegetables. When asked if he 
were resting, he replied, “No; I’m not tired. I’m 
only waiting for the sun to go down so I can quit 
work.” 

This is the spirit that loses, the lack of energy 
and enthusiasm that inevitably leads to failure. 

It will make all the difference in the world to 

[ 299 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


you, my friend, whether you are trying to make 
your life a superb masterpiece, whether you work 
it up with that enthusiasm and zeal which never 
tires, or whether the hours drag and the days are 
all too long. 

It makes a tremendous difference whether you 
regard your position as a superb opportunity, a 
splendid stepping-stone, or whether your mind is 
focused upon the clock and your pay envelope. 

When I see a man who is proud of his job, 
whose whole heart is in it, who is impatient to get 
to his work in the morning and dreads to see the 
hours pass and the quitting time come, then I know 
that he is an artist and not an artisan. 

If you approach your work as an artist, whose 
soul hungers for beauty, approaches a masterpiece 
which he has longed for years to put upon can- 
vas, and for which he has made many a sacrifice; 
if you will bring the same zeal and enthusiasm to 
your task that young Lincoln brought to the co- 
veted book that he had walked many miles to 
borrow; if you bring the same yearning for self- 
improvement and the same zest and determination 
that the slave boy, Fred Douglas, brought to the 
posters on the barn and the fences and the scraps 
of paper picked up on the plantation, from which 
he wrested the beginning of an education; if you 
approach your work with the enthusiasm of the 
deaf, dumb, and blind Helen Keller, you cannot 
fail to win out. 


[ 300 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Many of the defeats suffered in the present 
European war are said to have been due to the 
falling short of their aim of shot and shell. The 
guns lacked projectile power. At the beginning 
of the war the Germans had a great advantage 
over the Allies because of the tremendous projec- 
tile power of their big guns, some of which could 
throw shells more than twenty miles. 

Thousands of human beings lose out in the bat- 
tle of life from the lack of projectile power. They 
do not throw themselves with sufficient force or 
enthusiasm into their careers to make their lives 
effective. 

One thing that has always characterized Theo- 
dore Roosevelt is his whole-hearted enthusiasm. 
No matter whether his activities have been em- 
ployed in school or college, as a cowboy on the 
prairies, as a police commissioner, as an officer, as 
a soldier in the war, as Vice-President or President, 
or as a hunter of wild game in the jungles of 
Africa, he has been all there . He has always flung 
his whole soul into his work, he has been enthus- 
iastic, dead in earnest, in everything he has under- 
taken. 

No man ever accomplishes anything great until 
he goes to his undertaking with a determination 
which knows no retreat, until he carries to it that 
enthusiasm which melts obstacles and fuses ob- 
structions. 

An enthusiastic, dead-in-earnest person shows 

c 301 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


enthusiasm even in his play. In whatever he does 
there is an undercurrent of personal force which 
tells us he is going to amount to something in the 
world. 

It does not matter at the time whether he is 
playing ball, conversing, or joking, we cannot help 
getting the impression that he is marked for ad- 
vancement, is destined for something higher. 

“Against the hindrances of the world nothing 
great and good can be carried without a certain 
fervor, intensity, and vehemence; these joined with 
faith, courage, and hopefulness make enthusiasm,” 
says James C. Fernald. 

No learning, no natural ability can take the 
place of a burning soul, a heart on fire with en- 
thusiasm, stirred to its very depths by zeal. En- 
thusiasm has taken innumerable inventors through 
years of drudgery, through numberless hardships, 
when friends had forsaken and enemies did their 
best to discourage and dishearten. 

It was enthusiasm that enabled Napoleon to 
make a campaign in two weeks that would have 
taken another at least a year or even more to ac- 
complish. 

Many of us do not realize the tremendous force 
that radiates from a dead-in-earnest soul, from 
one who is fired with his life purpose. I have seen 
a salesman so on fire with enthusiasm in his work 
that he seemed to take a prospect right off his feet, 
no matter how prejudiced he might be against him 
[ 302 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and how determined not to be influenced when he 
began talking to him. It is a real study to watch 
this man’s face, aglow with the fine spirit of en- 
thusiasm and zest behind it. In most cases he 
does not need to urge people to buy whatever he 
is selling. He radiates such a flood of sunshine 
and good cheer and creates such a glowing picture 
of his merchandise and what wonderful things it 
will do that customers feel they must have it. 
While under his spell, they consider it a privilege 
to have the chance to buy. His enthusiasm so con- 
vinces them of the value of his proposition that 
they often voluntarily suggest his calling on their 
friends, thus giving him the advantage of their 
endorsement. 

A man who is enthusiastic, whether he is an in- 
ventor, a discoverer, a merchant, or a solicitor, a 
traveling salesman, or a school-teacher, will find 
the doors to success open magically to him. 

Enthusiasm has always been back of every great 
human achievement, and no man can be enthus- 
iastic in anything until he lives for it, until he can 
fling the weight of his whole being into it. 

Some of us often wonder why others who 
started out with us make such tremendous strides 
and get so far ahead in a short time. We need 
not look far for the reason. We will find very 
quickly that they are more enthusiastic than we 
are, that they have a burning zeal, a great passion 
for what they undertake. 

[ 3°3 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


There are many men in middle life who are 
practically where they were when they left school 
or college. Their enthusiasm has long since given 
out; their work has become drudgery. They have 
not advanced a particle; some have even retro- 
graded, and they cannot understand why they do 
not get on, why they are not more successful. 

You, my unsuccessful friend, may say you have 
never had a fair chance, that your employers have 
been prejudiced against you. Of course they are 
prejudiced against poor, half-done work. Perhaps 
you have not shown any marks or indications of 
winning material. They are looking for employees 
with warm, vigorous blood in them, with enthusi- 
astic life vim, and if they do not see these quali- 
ties in you, can you wonder that they are not 
favorably impressed? 

There is nothing an employer dislikes more 
than the dragging around, the moping of em- 
ployees, who look as though they had no interest in 
life, and were just working against time. If one 
is incompetent there is a good excuse for discharg- 
ing him, but if he is simply indifferent, without 
spirit or energy, it is harder for an employer to 
handle him. 

In this age of competition, where everything is 
pusher or pushed, there is little hope of advance- 
ment for the employee who loses his enthusiasm 
at the start; for those who not only do not hold 
the pace at which they set out, but who do not 
[ 304 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


also improve on it. The half-hearted, indifferent 
worker, without vim or enthusiasm, will never be 
more than a drudge, an underling. In dull times, 
or in a business crisis, he will be the first to be 
“laid off.” 

The other day I overheard a business man say 
that when an employee got stale with him that was 
the end of him. Perhaps not a single person in 
this man’s employ ever dreamed that he was liable 
to be discharged because he was getting “stale.” 
They may not have realized that employers in 
general regard enthusiasm in employees as a very 
great asset in their business and the lack of it as a 
liability. 

Everybody knows that an enthusiastic man does 
things, that he has initiative, originality. Because 
he has enthusiasm, he has also courage, confidence, 
assurance. 

I have never known a man to make a marked 
success of his life who did not bring the right 
spirit to his work, who did not take supreme pride 
in his vocation, who did not look upon it as a pro- 
fession, no matter how lowly others might re- 
gard it. 

I once knew a shoemaker who was really an ar- 
tist and not an artisan although he cobbled shoes. 
He was as proud of his job as a master artist 
could be of the picture on his canvas. Although 
a humble cobbler he was known and respected by 
a large section of the community where he lived. 
[ 305 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


He would always have a lot of work ahead wait- 
ing for him when other shoemakers were idle, be- 
cause he was an artist while they were merely 
artisans. 

All necessary occupations are respectable and 
can be made very honorable. All workers belong 
to one family. We are all necessary to one an- 
other. Men who clean the streets and take care 
of the sewers of the city, the men who labor in the 
health department are even more necessary than 
those who write books and paint pictures, because 
but for them the health of the entire community 
would be in peril. 

I never see a man working in the ditches, on 
the railroad tracks, cleaning the streets or working 
on the sewers or laying the pavements but I feel 
grateful to him for making conditions so delight- 
ful, so healthful, and living so easy for me. 

“Happy is the man who has a task to keep him 
from idleness and who enjoys the task,” said John 
Burroughs in a recent interview. 

Joy, enthusiasm in his work is the life philos- 
ophy that keeps the veteran author-naturalist 
young, happy, and vigorous in his seventy-ninth 
year. Outside of his life work he still finds time 
to do the chores at his home, “Slabsides,” where 
he cleans out the furnace, chops wood, and rakes 
up the yard with a vim which would put many a 
youth to shame. 

The enthusiastic man is a perpetual prod to 

[ 306 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


everybody about him. He is an ambition-arouser, 
he makes others ashamed of their inaction, their 
lethargy, and draws them into the current of action 
with him. His enthusiasm is contagious. 

One of the great secrets of the evangelist 
“Billy” Sunday’s power lies in his tremendous en- 
thusiasm. He arouses people, wakes them up, 
and carries them along with him like a whirl- 
wind. His enthusiasm is contagious and goes 
through an audience like a mighty electrical cur- 
rent. 

Every soldier in France felt the uplift of Na- 
poleon’s forcefulness. His personal force, his en- 
thusiasm, sustained their courage, made heroes out 
of soldiers who, under some commanders would 
have been failures. With him they fought harder, 
marched further and endured more pain than 
would have been possible with any other leader. 
Under Napoleon’s fiery leadership men walked, 
without a tremor, to what they knew was certain 
death. 

The miracle which the young peasant girl, Joan 
of Arc, performed, was due to her marvelous en- 
thusiasm inflamed by the heaven-born conviction 
that she was divinely commissioned to lead the 
disorganized armies of France to victory. Even 
the best brains of France, which were supposed to 
direct the operations of the army, disciplined by 
years of military training, could not do what this 
poor ignorant girl did. 

[ 307 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


Joan of Arc had never before been near an 
army. She knew nothing whatever about discipline 
or training. She had no idea of military ma- 
neuvers, of war tactics. It was her overwhelm- 
ing enthusiasm, backed by her strong conviction, 
that performed the world miracle. 

Enthusiasm has been the great miracle-worker 
of the ages and the great settlement builder, al- 
ways pushing out in the van of civilization. 

It took Columbus across the sea, Caesar across 
the Rubicon, Napoleon over the Alps. 

From the time of the imperishable ancients, 
Socrates, Aristotle, and Demosthenes, to that of 
Washington, Lincoln, and Webster, and the great 
achievers of to-day, — Edison, Marconi, Orville 
Wright, John Wanamaker, Colonel Goethels, Dr. 
Carrel, — enthusiasm has been the foundation of 
every success. 

If we were all working enthusiastically at the 
task for which we are best fitted the face of the 
world would be changed. If everyone were to go 
to his job every morning with the anticipated joy 
that can scarcely wait until the store, the factory, 
or the studio opens, what a happy place this earth 
would be ! If every employee went to his task with 
such zest, with such keen delight and such vivid 
anticipation, it would not be long before multitudes 
of employees found their own names over the doors 
of their business or profession. How quickly we 
should then see the business millennium! 

[ 308 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Horace Greely said that the best labor is that 
of a high-minded workman with an enthusiasm 
for his work. For such a man there is life, hope, 
and a large future. For him there is always a 
place on the main track. He is undaunted by dif- 
ficulties; they serve only to increase his determina- 
tion to push on. “Side-tracked” is not in the vo- 
cabulary of such a man. He grows. He pushes 
ahead each day by sheer force of will. Each day’s 
progress may be comparatively small. But he 
keeps moving. He cannot be side-tracked. 

Never before has the youth, fired by enthusiasm, 
had such an opportunity as he has to-day. This 
is the age of young men and young women. Their 
ardor is their crown, before which the languid and 
the passive bow. The world looks to them to be 
interpreters of new forms of truth and beauty. Se- 
crets, jealously guarded by nature, are waiting to 
reveal themselves to the enthusiast who is ready to 
concentrate his life on the work. Inventions fore- 
shadowed to-day are waiting for enthusiasm to de- 
velop them. Every occupation, every profession, 
every field of human endeavor, is clamorous for 
enthusiastic workers. 

“No matter what your work is,” says Emerson, 
“let it be yours; if you are a tinker or preacher, 
blacksmith or president, let what you do be in your 
bones; and you open a door by which the affluence 
of heaven and earth shall stream into you.” 


[ 309 ] 


CHOOSE A LIFE MOTTO 


An inspiring motto, an ambition-arousing maxim has been 
the turning-point in many a great career. 

A YOUNG salesman, after a successful trip, 
writes me : “I was on the road selling hard- 
ware specialties and had had several very 
strong throw downs, when I walked into the office 
of the buyer for one of the large wholesale houses 
in Boston. While waiting to see the buyer, I no- 
ticed a motto hanging at the side of his desk which 
said: “The doors of opportunity are wide; don’t 
say you can’t get in before you have tried !” This 
motto so inspired me with renewed vim and vigor, 
that I sailed into that buyer like a young man 
courting his first girl, and as a result I landed a 
good order.” 

A man who holds an honorable position in the 
Philippine Islands says: “At the age of twenty- 
seven, after eighteen years of hard work in the 
textile districts of New York and Pennsylvania, I 
found myself with no education whatever, save 
a love for good, helpful literature and a willing- 
ness to work. I have attained my present position 
entirely through my own efforts, unaided save by 
books and a few mottoes, which have been par- 

[ ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ticularly helpful to me; especially this one which 
is responsible for my beginning to study: 

“ ‘The heights by great men reached and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 

But they, while their companions slept, 

Were toiling upward in the night.’ 

“Another which has helped me a great deal is 
attributed to Beethoven. It is this, ‘Genius is two 
per cent, talent and ninety-eight per cent, applica- 
tion.’ ” 

The influence of an uplifting, energizing motto 
kept constantly in mind, is incalculable. Multi- 
tudes of men and women owe their success in life 
to the daily inspiration of such a motto. 

A motto, like an ideal, often determines a whole 
destiny. A single motto or maxim has been the 
turning-point in many a career. Who can estimate 
the value of a high ideal, crystalized in one up- 
lifting sentence, constantly held in mind. A good 
motto will often lead one to look up and on when 
tempted to look down and back. It will help one 
to soar when tempted to grovel. 

Nothing you can do will help you more than 
to choose carefully such a motto and place it where 
it will perpetually remind you of your pledge to 
square your life with it. We tend to become like 
our thought. It is literally true that “as a man 
thinketh in his heart so is he.” A life slogan which 
embodies your aim, stirs your ambition, and tends 
[ 3ii ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


to arouse your latent potencies, will be worth in- 
finitely more to you than an inherited fortune, for 
it will help you to find and utilize your highest 
possibilities, which is almost the greatest good for- 
tune that can come to any man or woman. 

Here, for instance, is a motto which has guided 
and shaped many a successful life, “Make every 
occasion a great occasion, for you never can tell 
when some one may be taking your measure for 
a larger place.” How inspiring is Dryden’s short 
but pithy sentence, “They can conquer who believe 
they can,” Emerson’s “Nothing comes without ef- 
fort, everything may come with the right effort,” 
and Frances E. Willard’s “Success doesn’t happen. 
It is organized, pre-empted, captured by concen- 
trated common sense !” 

In many instances famous people have been gov- 
erned by some helpful thought or motto, which 
formed their guiding principle and daily rule of 
conduct. Lest he should be tempted to forget the 
value of time, Ruskin kept on his desk a large piece 
of chalcedony on which was inscribed the single 
word “To-day.” Joshua Reynolds and David 
Wilkie kept constantly before them the motto, 
“Work, Work, Work.” Voltaire received inspi- 
ration from the motto, “Toujours au travail” 
(Always at work), while Scott kept ever before 
him the words, “Never be doing nothing.” 

Many a man owes his success in life to the in- 
spiration of a single book, a chance remark, a lec- 
[ 312 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ture, or perhaps a sermon. An English tanner, 
whose leather had gained a great reputation, said 
he should not have made it so good had he not 
read Carlyle. So, many a man has done much 
better work in life because of the influence of a 
motto. 

Thousands of strugglers have been held to their 
tasks by an inspiring life motto, when but for it 
discouragement and failures might have turned 
them back. 

Some time ago I received a letter from a young 
man whoi said that in his college days he had read 
in an article of mine a sentence which had been 
in a way a life slogan for him. Because this sen- 
tence applies so aptly to those who through indo- 
lence or indifference fail to live up to their best, 
I quote it: “To do the lower thing when the higher 
is possible, constitutes one of the greatest trage- 
dies of human life.” “I cannot tell you,” said this 
young man, now a successful writer and lecturer, 
“what a new vision of life this has given me, and 
I have endeavored to pass on the influence. As a 
motto it will ever be of immeasurable value to me 
in attempting to do higher and better things.” 

The great thing in life is not only to get aroused, 
to wake up to our possibilities, but to keep awake ; 
and nothing will prove more effective in doing this 
than the adoption of a motto that will meet our 
particular need. 

For example, suppose a youth who was nat- 
[ 313 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

urally easy-going and inclined to take the line of 
least resistance should choose, and try to live up 
to, this motto: “Always improving something 
somewhere.” If he kept it constantly in mind it 
would be a perpetual rebuke to him when inclined 
to give way to his natural indolence, to throw 
away or to kill precious time. It would constantly 
jog his memory when tempted to do his work in 
a slovenly, slipshod manner, to leave things half 
done, to do them “just for now.” 

Arago, the great mathematician and astrono- 
mer, says in his autobiography, that when he was 
puzzled and discouraged with difficulties he en- 
countered in his early studies in mathematics some 
words he found on the waste leaf of his text-book 
caught his attention and interested him. He found 
it to be a short letter from D’Alembert to a young 
person, disheartened like himself, and read: “Go 
on, sir, go on. The difficulties you meet with will 
resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed and 
light will dawn and shine with increasing clearness 
on your path.” “That maxim,” he said, “was my 
greatest master in mathematics.” 

I have many letters from people who were in- 
spired and helped in a very marked way by mot- 
toes. One of these, a successful clergyman says: 
“I recall at three periods in early life when a motto 
was of great benefit to me. One quite early, when 
as a student I was undertaking more than I could 
possibly do, resulting in confusion and nervous- 
[ 3H ] 


GETTINQ THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

ness. This motto was “Drive your business, but 
don’t let your business drive you.” The second 
was quoted to me by the late Bishop I. W. Joyce 
when I was trying to work eighteen hours a day 
and I got on with four hours of sleep, a course 
which resulted in nervousness and sluggishness at 
every moment of leisure. The motto was ‘The 
Lord giveth His beloved sleep.’ The third came 
to me when I was about thirty years of age. In 
lecturing and some literary work I had fallen into 
the habit of being witty and funny, so that every- 
one expected to laugh when I spoke or wrote for 
the press. The disease grew on me till one day I 
read this epigram, ‘Oddity may excite attention, 
but it never can command respect.’ I do not know 
the author, but it ‘stuck.’ These three have been 
of service to me.” 

Another writes: “John Wanamaker in an uplift 
talk to one thousand girls at the Normal School 
of his home city, Philadelphia, told of an old 
Anglo-Saxon motto he saw when on his travels 
that was an inspiration to him. ‘Do ye next 
thyngc.’ This was given with an application to 
those preparing for a teacher’s career. It has been 
remembered thirty years by the writer, and has 
been a help in planning a busy life.” 

A third says, “When a boy I used to do some 
sweeping for a doctor twice a week after school 
for twenty-five cents a week. He had a framed 
motto on his bookcase which cut deep into my 

1 315 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


mind and which I feel sure made me a better man. 
It was this : 

‘Life is a mirror of king and slave, 

It is just what we are and do, 

So give to the world the best you have, 

And the best will come back to you.* ” 

A successful Southern physician writes, “I be- 
lieve mottoes are a valuable source of help in 
molding lives. The following have been the 
great factors in my professional success for nearly 
a quarter of a century, i. ‘Don’t hurry!’ 2. 
‘Don’t worry!’ 3. ‘Do it well, or not at all!’ 

4. ‘The boat of Truth in all things will carry 
you safely over the most turbulent seas of life.’ 

5. ‘Continually send out Love to the whole world 
— enemies and friends alike — and enjoy its return 
many-fold!’ 6. ‘Anger, however slight, is a vile 
poison to one’s self, Self-control is a golden pana- 
cea.’ 7. ‘Live for the whole world, and the whole 
world will live for you. It is a great investment, 
one for many millions.’ 8. ‘Self — is the devil — 
to be selfish is to be devilish — unselfishness is 
golden.’ ” 

Nothing so strengthens the mind and enlarges 
the horizon of manhood and womanhood as a con- 
stant effort to measure up to a worthy ambition. 
It stretches the thought, as it were, to a larger 
measure, and touches the life to finer issues. 

“I dream dreams and see visions, and then 1 
[ 316 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


paint my dreams and my visions,” was Raphael’s 
reply to one who had asked him how he made his 
marvelous pictures. Back of the work ever glows 
the dream, — the aspiration of the worker. Its 
nature determines whether we shall fulfill the high 
purpose of our being, or become castaways, flot- 
sam and jetsam on life’s ocean. 

To Winchester, the oldest boys’ public school 
in England, the founder gave a motto which it re- 
tains to this day in its quaint old English form, 
“Manners makyth man.” 

Equally inspiring are the mottoes of some of 
our own colleges and universities, such as Yale’s 
v “Lux et veritas” (“Light and truth”), and Wel- 
lesley’s “Not to be ministered unto but to minister.” 

On the entrance gates to Cornell University, 
erected by Andrew D. White, is the following in- 
scription : 

“So enter that daily thou mayst become more 
learned and thoughtful; 

“So depart that daily thou mayst become more 
useful to thy country and mankind.” 

Possibly there is no place where mottoes can 
be used with better effect than in a schoolroom. 
It is the custom of some teachers to write inspir- 
ing mottoes each day on the board and to require 
their pupils to commit them to memory. The fol- 
lowing selections are especially helpful in school 
work: 


[ 317 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

“Give a youth resolution and the alphabet, and 
who shall place limits to his career ?” 

“We get out of life just what we put into it.” 

Not many things indifferently, but one thing su- 
premely, is the demand of the hour. 

“When you are good to others you are always 
best to yourself.” 

What is put into the first of life is put into the 
whole of life. 

“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men be- 
lieve in cause and effect.” 

“Many things half done do not make one thing 
well done.” 

Do not brood over the past, or dream of the 
future, but seize the instant and get your lesson 
from the hour. 

We stamp our own values upon ourselves and 
cannot expect to pass for more. 

“Your talent is your call.” 

“Aim high and hold your aim.” 

“Worth makes the man; the want of it, the 
fellow.” 

Business men are recognizing more and more 
the value of decorating the walls of their offices, 
workshops, and factories with mottoes embodying 
the value of industry, economy, sobriety, thorough- 
ness, cheerfulness, and politeness. In the editorial 
offices of a New York newspaper the following 
motto, “Terseness; Accuracy; Terseness,” is 
prominent in several places. On the desks of many 
[ 318 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


business men is the suggestive motto “Do it now.” 
Sometimes this motto is supplemented by the words 
“and do it to a finish.” The president of a large 
New York concern uses mottoes in hundreds of 
ways. He has mottoes printed on his business 
cards, on his billheads, — in fact, on almost every 
kind of printed matter that he uses. 

“Dare and do” was the motto of the brilliant 
editor, Jeannette L. Gilder. Hamlin Garland’s 
guiding principle has always been embodied in the 
one word — “Concentration.” And ex-Speaker 
Cannon’s motto is one that everyone might adopt 
for the good of all: “I am going to keep my face 
toward the East. You will never find me down 
among the pessimists prophesying damnation for 
the human race.” 

Another universally helpful motto is Edward 
Everett Hale’s: 

“Look up, and not down; 

Look out, and not in; 

Look forward, and not backward: 

Lend a hand.” 

We find the getting-ahead idea in a great many 
mottoes, very many of which were born of the 
necessity of finding work, or of doing more effec- 
tive work. 

The first experience of Mr. Girard, a great 
Philadelphia merchant on his arrival in this coun- 
try aptly illustrates this. “When I stepped ashore 
from the sailing vessel,” he said, “I was without 

[ 319 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 


money or friends. I spoke to a man on the wharf, 
and asked him what to do. He replied: 

“ ‘Work, young man. Have you any motto ?’ 

“ ‘No,’ I said. ‘What do you mean?’ 

“ ‘Every man must have a motto,’ he said. ' 
‘Now, think of one. Go out and hunt for work.’ 

“I started, thinking of a motto. As I walked 
along the street, I saw, painted on a door, the 
word ‘Push.’ I said, ‘That shall be my motto.’ 

I did push at that door, and entered an office. I 
was asked what I wanted. I said, ‘Work; and 
the word on your door gave me not only a motto, 
but confidence, and I ventured to ask you for 
employment.’ 

“My manner pleased the man. He asked me 
many questions, all of which were answered 
promptly. He said, at length: 

“ ‘I want a boy of “push,” and, as you have 
adopted that for your motto, I will try you.’ 

“He did. My success followed, and the motto 
that made my fortune will make that of others — 
‘Push.’ ” 

A good motto with the ring of faith as well 
as hustle in it is this: “Your own will come to you 
if you hold the thought firmly — and hustle.” An- 
other as staunch and stimulating is: “Life is not 
the holding of a good hand, but the playing of a 
poor hand well.” 

A correspondent who has kept a small note- 
book in which he jots down mottoes and quotations 
[ 320 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


since he entered high school in 1895 writes me 
that he has found the following especially helpful : 

“Every day is a fresh beginning, 

Every morn is the world made new.” 

“When in doubt move to the front.” 

“When progress ceases decay begins.” 

“The thing that goes the farthest, 

Towards making life worth while, 

That costs the least and does the most 
Is just a pleasant smile.” 

“ ‘When in doubt move to the front,’ says my 
correspondent,” has meant much to me. It has in- 
fluenced my course when, at critical moments, I 
was pondering which way to turn. I have learned 
that at such times one way leads onward and up- 
ward ; one course leads to the front. I have some- 
times come to a point where, for the moment, I 
did not know which of two lines of action to take, 
but I could always tell which was best when I 
asked myself ‘Which leads to the front?’ ” 

There are mottoes to fit every aspiration, reso- 
lution, and mood. The following are a string of 
pearls : 

“Perfection to the finish.” (This is a motto 
which every youth should adopt.) 

“Integrity is a precious thing, above rubies, gold, 
creeds, kingdoms. It is the poor man’s capital. 
It gives credit, safety, power.” 

“Scatter your flowers as you go; you will never 
go over the road again.” 

[ 321 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

‘‘Don’t wait for your opportunity, make it.” 

“Will finds a way, or makes one.” 

“This one thing I do.” 

“Dare to live thy creed.” 

“Find your purpose, and fling your life out to it.” 

“Try to be somebody with all your might.” 

“Self-made or never made.” 

“Character is greater than any career.” 

“Do not wait for great opportunities; seize com- 
mon occasions and make them great.” 

“Guard your weak point.” 

“Look upward; live upward.” 

“Do not turn your back on troubles; meet them 
squarely.” 

Whatever you do for a living have a rousing, 
inspiring life slogan that will keep your ambition 
stirred up, and your brain cells alive, so that you 
will have the mental vision that sees opportunities 
and the grit to grasp them with that vigor, de- 
termination, and intensity which achieve. 

If you have not selected your motto or word of 
power yet, do so. 

Do not choose a money-making motto, but one 
which will cause you to aspire, which will help to 
round out and complete a full life; a motto which 
shall ever be to you a pole star, guiding you to 
your goal. 

It is never too late to adopt a motto or slogan, 
to begin to improve ourselves or our condition. 
There are tens of thousands of people in the great 
[ 322 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

failure army to-day who in six months’ time, if 
they applied themselves, could so jack up their 
ambition, prod their energies and improve their 
appearance that they would scarcely know them- 
selves. It is just a question of keeping one’s am- 
bition up, not allowing it to sag. 

I know men who had apparently lost their am- 
bition, who had been literally down and out, but 
who, by the reading of an inspiring book, listen- 
ing to a sermon, the coming of some unexpected 
responsibility, or by some other seemingly simple 
thing which thoroughly aroused them to their pos- 
sibilities, were so completely transformed in a few 
months that they did not seem like the same men. 

Not only choose a life slogan and keep it ever 
in mind, but keep inspiring books close at hand, 
keep one in your pocket, if you can, which will 
stir you to the depths of your soul, spur your am- 
bition and keep you continually up to standard so 
that your ideals will never fade or ambition sag. 


c 323 1 


KEEP SWEET 


A sunny disposition is the very soul of success. 


Mathews. 


“You must take joy with you or you will not find it even in 
Heaven.” 


‘It was only a glad ‘good morning/ 
As she passed along the way, 

Pnf tf cnr/anrl fliA mArninor^c orlnnr 


But it spread the morning’s glory 
Over the livelong day.” 


“Smiles are the only potentials known that move things 
whether they intend to move or not.” 


VER all of the telephones in the Western 



Express Company’s offices is a card, bear- 


^ ing the legend, TIPS FOR TOP- 
NOTCHERS, under which are these words: 

“The other end of the telephone reproduces 
only your voice. It gives no other inkling of your 
disposition. WEAR A SMILE IN YOUR 
VOICE. It consumes no extra time, costs nothing 
— and makes friends.” 

Think what it would mean if the millions of 
people who telephone every day were to wear a 
smile in their voice ! What a volume of harmony 
would take the place of the volume of discord 
which flows daily over the telephone wires ! How 
it would ease the burden and the strain of life if 


[ 3H ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


every one, on every occasion, would keep sweet 
and wear a smile in his voice ! 

The man or woman who puts sunshine into the 
lives of those about him is not only his own best 
friend, but he is also a benefactor of the race. 

The ability to radiate sunshine is a greater 
power than beauty, greater than any mere mental 
accomplishment. 

If I could give but one word of advice to the 
young man and the young woman entering upon 
life’s responsibilities I think it would be this: “Cul- 
tivate the joys of life. Keep sweet.” Resolve 
that, no matter how you may be situated, what 
your occupation or profession, you will not allow 
the disagreeable things you encounter to shadow 
your life, to make you gloomy and depressing. 

People who take life so very seriously, who think 
it an awful responsibility to live, people who are 
sad because they say life is short and full of suf- 
fering and who are always impressing themselves 
and others with the idea that they must be “up and 
doing while the day lasts, for the night cometh,” 
etc., do not realize that they are making their 
minds negative. They do not realize that joy and 
gladness, the habit of good cheer, are tremendous 
uplifting, creative forces. The mind must be spon- 
taneous, effective, and the sad, serious soul, ob- 
sessed with the idea of what an awful thing it is 
to live is not normal. 

We were constructed to radiate sunshine, good 

[ 32s ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


cheer and a spirit of helpfulness, just as the rose 
was constructed to radiate beauty and perfume. 
The man or woman who is pessimistic, persist- 
ently gloomy, is abnormal, unbalanced. Josh Bil- 
lings says, “If a man kan’t laff there is sum mistake 
made in putting him together, and if he won’t 
laugh he wants az mutch keeping away from az a 
bear-trap when it iz sot.” 

The world has a big place in its heart for the 
man who laughs and who can make it laugh; who 
can chase away its cares with rollicking humor and 
fun. It is even willing to pay any one who can 
do this a big price for his pains. 

The career of the late John Bunny, the moving 
picture actor, is a proof of this. Mr. Bunny had 
already succeeded on the legitimate stage as a 
comedian, when he decided to make his appeal to 
a larger audience. So he went into the “movies,” 
in 1910, at a weekly salary of forty dollars, and 
in three years had worked up to one thousand 
dollars a week. 

Because of his power to chase dull care away 
Mr. Bunny was known and loved literally in al- 
most every corner of the globe. His mail brought 
hundreds of tenders of admiration and love. Let- 
ters came to him from all parts of the world writ- 
ten in every tongue, and countless tokens of af- 
fection were showered on him by his unknown wor- 
shipers. On the occasion of a trip around the 
world his progress was a triumphal march. From 
1 326 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

the time he landed at Southampton until he re- 
turned to San Francisco, whether on the station 
platform of the remotest English village, on the 
Strand, on the Avenue de L’Opera, or Unter den 
Linden he was recognized and followed by an ad- 
miring throng. While he was in London a 
stranger came up to him and said: “Mr. Bunny, 
I saw you in the movies in South Africa just before 
I left there a few weeks ago, and I tell you those 
black men over there just love you.” 

The whole world loves the bright, cheerful soul, 
whose presence chases away gloom as the sun drives 
black threatening clouds from the sky. A sunny 
face is a solvent for all sorts of ills which nothing 
else will cure. If we could early learn to keep 
sweet, to have that sort of courage which sees the 
light ahead long before the dawn, it would not 
matter what misfortune or trouble might come it 
could not harm us. A sunny disposition and that 
priceless sort of moral bravery that smiles in the 
face of threatened disaster will enable one to 
weather any storm. 

If all of us, especially the grouchers, the pessi- 
mists, and the disgruntled folks generally, only 
knew the power of a smile as a solvent for all sorts 
of friction and ills the world would be a much 
happier place in which to live. I have seen men 
wrangling and almost at the point of blows, when 
one with a sunny disposition entered the room, 
and in five minutes the storm was all over. 
[ 3 2 7 J 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

It was like pouring oil on a troubled sea that had 
threatened to swallow a ship that was battling 
for its life. 

You can not quarrel with a man who wears a 
smile on his face and in his heart. No matter how 
angry you may be with him his cheery good will 
takes the fight all out of you because it puts out 
the fire. 

I know a man who was fighting mad with an- 
other who had, as he believed, injured him seri- 
ously. During a period of great financial strin- 
gency this man became involved in difficulties and 
thought he was going to fail in business. After 
exhausting all other resources, when every effort 
to get money from his friends to tide him over the 
crisis had failed, in desperation he called on his 
supposed enemy, and asked him if it would be pos- 
sible to loan him sufficient money to carry him 
over, offering a very big bonus if he would 
do so. 

“Certainly,” was the hearty reply to his request. 
“I shall be very glad to loan you the money and 
I will charge you only six per cent, interest.” 

The borrower was dumbfounded. In an instant 
this act of kindness, coming from one he had 
thought his enemy, when even his friends had 
failed him, neutralized every particle of hatred and 
made him see his benefactor in his true light. 
Moreover, the loan cleared his financial sky and 
brought prosperity out of threatened ruin, 

[ 328 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


We are witnessing now on a great international 
scale the power of kindness and good cheer as 
solvents for the wounds of world-wide tragedy and 
financial disaster. The passports of kindness and 
good cheer are honored in every country. On the 
battlefields of Europe and in the homes of the 
warring peoples, brave, sunny souls are doing their 
best to alleviate the misery caused by hate and 
discord. 

“It is a good thing that I am always so cheerful 
and contented. It happens sometimes that I can 
make Jeanne and Helene forget, and I give them a 
little hope.” 

This was a postscript to a letter written by a 
young French girl at Rouen to her sister in Amer- 
ica. With father, brother, and other male relatives 
away at the scene of battle, and her home being 
turned into an asylum for the unfortunate 
wounded, this young girl is able to help those about 
her to “forget” and “hope.” 

Truly “there are knights of politeness and 
princes of sunshine” everywhere, and oh, what a 
blessing they are to humanity ! 

A calm, serene, sweet soul is a perpetual balm 
to the hurts of the world. Such souls reassure, and 
recharge us with courage. We seem to touch 
power and sympathy when they are with us, and 
we love to go near them when in trouble. They 
breathe a medicinal balm that not only soothes the 
wounds and hurts of the heart, but also renews lost 
[ 329 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

confidence and rouses the flagging will with the 
determination to go on. 

Laugh, and your troubles and disappointments 
will fall from you; frown, and go about with a 
gloomy, lowering face, and you will draw a host 
more to you. 

During an acute financial panic a merchant 
whose shelves were groaning with unsold merchan- 
dise, and whose clerks were standing around 
gloomy and discouraged, in going about his store 
one day caught a glimpse of his own face in a long 
mirror, and was shocked at what he saw. “I was 
amazed to see how blue and gloomy I looked,” he 
told a friend, “and I said to myself, ‘I don’t won- 
der business is bad in this store, I don’t wonder 
people don’t come here to buy. Everybody is in 
the dumps. The sight of all these gloomy, discour- 
aged faces would drive customers away even in 
the most prosperous times.’ Then I called all the 
clerks together and had a talk with them. I told 
them that the store needed bracing up, and cheer- 
ing up, more than anything else; that I wanted a 
complete change in the expression of their faces; 
that we were losing business and our faces told the 
story to the world. I said that hereafter I 
would discharge any clerk who did not have a 
pleasant, cheerful expression. From that time on 
things changed very materially and business im- 
proved, for trade, even more in hard times than 
when conditions are normal, is a matter of attrac- 
[ 330 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


tion. I found that we had all been so blue and 
discouraged, because of the wretched business con- 
ditions, that we had created an atmosphere of dis- 
couragement which had actually driven away busi- 
ness.” 

Did you ever realize how many friends and busi- 
ness patrons you may drive away through a ha- 
bitually sour, gloomy expression and a repellent 
manner? Everybody is trying to get out of the 
darkness into the light, out of the cold into the 
warmth. Everybody is looking for brightness, 
trying to get away from shadows into the sunshine. 
They want to get into harmony and away from 
discord. 

Cheerful people, who look on the bright side of 
the picture, and who are ever ready to snatch vic- 
tory from defeat, are always popular; they are not 
only happy in themselves, but the cause of untold 
happiness to others. 

“When Emerson’s library was burning in Con- 
cord,” says Louisa Alcott, “I went to him as he 
stood with the firelight on his strong, sweet face, 
and endeavored to express my sympathy for the 
loss of his most valued possessions, but he an- 
swered cheerily, ‘Never mind, Louisa; see what a 
beautiful blaze they make! We will enjoy that 
now!’ The lesson was one never forgotten, and 
in the varied losses that have come to me, I have 
learned to look for something beautiful and 
bright.” 

[ 33i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

Emerson’s smile was a perpetual benediction to 
all who knew him. Another great soul akin to 
Emerson’s, with the same wonderful power of il- 
luminating by the sunshine of his presence every 
scene in which he appeared, was Phillips Brooks. 

A Boston newspaper once printed this item: “It 
was dark and rainy yesterday and Newspaper Row 
felt the gloom. But Bishop Brooks passed 
through and the sun shone.” 

The sun always shone when Bishop Brooks 
passed along. He radiated sunshine as the sun 
radiates light and heat. I once lived in Boston and 
used to see him often. It was an inspiration to 
look upon his face. One instinctively felt that he 
was in constant touch with Omnipotence, always 
in tune with the great Source of the universe, the 
Giver of all good gifts, of ail joy and gladness. 

People seeing Phillips Brooks for the first time 
used to say that he gave the impression of being an 
ambassador of God, a messenger sent from 
Heaven to man to give him physical evidences of 
the existence of the Divinity. His church was the 
Mecca for thousands of strangers visiting Boston. 
Many Boston people moved to his section of the 
city so that they might permanently enjoy the up- 
lift and inspiration of his benign presence. Phillips 
Brooks increased the value of every lot of land, 
of every home, of every institution in his neigh- 
borhood. 

Who has not felt the uplift, the refreshment 
[ 332 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


that comes from the sight of a cheery, smiling 
face ! I have in mind a sunny soul who sometimes 
drops in to see me when I am so busy that I do not 
know which way to turn. But I do not remember 
ever being so busy as to regret this man’s calk for 
he brings with him a care-free air that is like heal- 
ing balm, and wherever he goes he leaves sunshine 
behind him. He scatters his flowers as he goes 
along, for he knows he never will go over ex? ctly 
the same road again. 

People almost envy this man his wonderful p 3ise 
and balance, and his sweet and sane philosophy of 
life which never takes into account position or 
money or any external advantage. Personal merit, 
character, is everything with him, no matter 
whether it is found in the rich man or the poor 
man. To him the character is divine wherever it 
is found. He is so in love with humanity that he 
gets a warm welcome wherever he goes. Doors 
which are barred to others fly open to him, simply 
because he is a radiator of joy. He is so enamored 
of life, of bare existence, that a stranger meeting 
him would think some great good fortune had just 
come to him, that he had just received some glad 
tidings of great joy. 

There is an invitation waiting for this man 
wherever he goes just because he has the lovable, 
cheery nature which everybody admires. 

It is human nature to love agreeable qualities, 
charming traits. We are all attracted by the things 
[ 333 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


that make us feel better, the things that give us 
pleasure. We like to have people call on us who 
leave a good taste in our mouths and abiding pleas- 
ant memories. We like men and women who 
bring sunshine into our lives, lighten our cares in- 
stead of loading us with their own, and make it - 
easier for us to keep sweet ourselves. 

There is no other force in nature which sets us 
so helpful and cheerful an example as the sun, 
which flings out its rays in every direction, flooding 
the world with light and heat and good cheer. 

The sun has no prejudices, no hatreds, no ani- 
mosities. It sends brightness and joy into the hum- 
blest home, just the same as into the king’s palace. 
Discriminating against no one, no matter how filthy 
or ugly, or wicked, the great sun gives, without 
stint, health, beauty, and life to all the world. It 
sends the same quality of radiance and warmth into 
the filthy slums as into the mansions of the rich. 

It penetrates to the foulest places, develops the lily 
out of the filthiest mud and mire, calls forth the 
rose out of the blackest soil, and develops the best, 
the most beautiful in everything it touches. 

A great-hearted, sunny, cheerful person is a 
symbol of the glorious, life-giving sun. His in- 
fluence is similar. It brings light, cheer, and en- 
couragement to the saddest hearts, sunshine to the 
darkest places. 

There is a great curative, medicinal property in 
good cheer. We all get an uplift from it. It acts 
[ 334 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


like a tonic on the whole system. On the other 
hand, pessimism, sadness, discouragement, always 
communicate a poison which depresses and 
weakens. Optimism is creative, constructive; — it 
builds up. Pessimism is destructive, negative; — it 
tears down. All qualities which make for happi- 
ness, which stimulate courage, are creative and 
constructive. 

People who can keep their minds sane, healthful, 
buoyant, are much less likely to become the victims 
of any physical disease than those who are con- 
stantly sad and gloomy. Joy and the habit of 
good cheer are great promoters of continued 
health, great disease-resisting forces, while mental 
depression and discouragement lessen the phy- 
sical power of resistance and are real disease- 
generators. 

Joy creates life; sadness and gloom destroy it. 
Whatever we feel enters into all the cells of the 
body. When we are joyous all the cells feel our 
joy, and they thrive and grow; but sadness and 
gloom disintegrate them. They do not perform 
their functions normally, and disease tendencies are 
encouraged. Noxious germs become more active 
because they feed upon the poisoned product of 
vicious thought. 

Joyous souls do not grow old nearly as rapidly 
as souls which are constantly permeated with 
gloom and sadness. Joy keeps the spirit young, 
makes one more helpful, more efficient. 

[ 335 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


It is smiles, and laughter, sunshine within and 
without, that makes life worth living. Imagine, if 
you can, a world without these. It is unthinkable. 
Such a world could not exist. 

“There is very little success where there is little 
laughter,” says Andrew Carnegie. “The work- 
man who rejoices in his work and laughs away his 
discomfort is the one sure to rise.” 

Yet there are many employers who discourage 
anything which approaches hilarity among their 
employees, on the ground that it is undignified, 
that it takes valuable time, and demoralizes disci- 
pline. But many also are being converted to Mr. 
Carnegie’s theory. They are finding that anything 
which gives a temporary relief to the strain and 
stress of business is beneficial, that a wave of laugh- 
ter running through a factory or workshop acts 
like a tonic, and tends to promote good work as 
well as good feeling. 

“No smiles, no business” is the motto of a suc- 
cessful business man. At first it struck me as rather 
a peculiar motto, but on second thought I realized 
how apt it is. Do we not all know that sour, 
gloomy faces drive away business, and that pleas- 
ant, sunny faces attract it? 

Cheerfulness will attract more customers, sell 
more goods, do more business with less wear and 
tear than any other quality. Optimism is the 
greatest business-getter, the biggest trader, the 
greatest achiever in the world. Pessimism has 
[ 336 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


never done anything but tear down and destroy 
what optimism has built up. 

In the business office, as in society, everywhere, 
the favorite is always the cheerful person. Good- 
natured, cheerful people do not waste their vital 
energy as rapidly as the grumbler or the too sober 
ones. They work with less friction. 

Good cheer is a lubricant; it oils all of life’s ma- 
chinery. 

Business men are beginning to find out that em- 
ployees can do more and much better work in a 
sunny, cheerful atmosphere of kindness and good 
will than in a gloomy, depressing one, where harsh 
criticism and fault-finding is the rule, and smiles 
and words of cheer and encouragement the excep- 
tion. 

A newsboy in New York told me recently that 
he has one woman customer who makes his whole 
day seem brighter, pleasanter, and his work easier, 
because of her cheerful smile and kind greeting 
as she buys her morning paper on her way to busi- 
ness. 

People who radiate sunshine have a faculty of 
turning the common water of life into the most 
delicious wine. Their cheery salutation ; their com- 
ing into a home is like the coming of the morning 
after a long, dark night. Their smile acts upon a 
sad heart like magic. It dispels the fogs of gloom 
and despair, as the sun dispels the mists and the 
miasma which hang over a stagnant swamp. These 
[ 337 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

sunshine characters are public benefactors. They 
are the unpaid boards of health who look after 
the public welfare. 

Nobody but himself may be helped by the money 
millionaire; but everybody is enriched who knows 
or comes in contact with the millionaire of good 
cheer, and the more he gives of his wealth, the 
more it multiplies. It is like the seed put into the 
soil — the more one sows, the greater the harvest. 

To be able to laugh away trouble is greater for- 
tune than to possess the mines of King Solomon. 
It is a fortune, too, that is within the reach of all 
who have the courage and nobility of soul to keep 
their faces turned to the light. 

Children should be brought up with the idea 
that life is a beautiful gift, and that they should 
always rejoice and be glad. They should be taught 
that they are the children of the King of kings, 
that happiness and success are their birthright, and 
that there is nothing to be sad or gloomy about. 

A sweet old lady who was asked the secret of 
her perpetual cheerfulness, said: “I think it is be- 
cause we were taught as children to be cheerful 
always, especially at table. My father was a law- 
yer with a large criminal practice; his mind was 
harassed with difficult problems all day long, yet 
he always came to the table with a smile and a 
pleasant greeting for every one, and exerted him- 
self to make the meal hour delightful. All his 
powers to charm were freely given to entertain 

1 338 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


his family. Three times a day we felt this genial 
influence, and the effect was marvelous. If a child 
came to the table with cross looks, he or she was 
quietly sent away to find a good boy or girl, for 
only such were allowed to come within that loving 
circle. We were taught that all petty grievances 
and jealousies must be forgotten when meal time 
came, and the habit of being cheerful three times 
a day, under all circumstances, had its effect on 
even the most sullen temper. Grateful as I am for 
all the training received in my childhood home, I 
look back upon the table influence as among the 
best of my life.” 

The time will come when a person who goes 
about among his fellows displaying a sour face and 
ugly disposition, radiating gloom, pessimism, will 
be considered an enemy of his kind, and will not 
be tolerated in society. 

It is just as much our duty to be cheerful, and 
to carry a good-will attitude toward our fellow- 
men as it is to be honest. It is every one’s duly 
to turn to the world a smiling face, a face that is 
full of hope, that radiates optimism, that indicates 
that the race is moving God-ward, that things are 
on the Heaven-ward trend. 

To go about the world with a gloomy, forbid- 
ding face is not only a great wrong to one’s fellow- 
men, but an insult to the Creator. It is a libel on 
His work to go through this world, where every- 
things bids us smile and be glad, wearing long, 
[ 339 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

sad faces, with expressions of doubt, fear, and 
anxiety. 

I have always felt a protest within me against 
the sad Christ pictures seen everywhere in art gal- 
leries, especially those of Europe. Personally, I 
believe that Christ, the God-man, was one of the 
happiest, most radiant, cheerful characters that 
ever lived. To me, anything else is unthinkable. 
I do not believe that He went around with a long, 
sad face, scattering melancholy everywhere. This 
would have been an indication of weakness, of fail- 
ure. His mission was to show man triumphant, 
and I believe He went around with the air of a 
conqueror, of a victor, not of one vanquished. 

His message was one of hope and cheer for the 
race. He came to usher in the new day and He did 
it like a king, not like a slave. There was triumph 
in His very mien ; His manner showed that a mas- 
terly Man had arrived and not a weakling, a truck- 
ling, apologizing, backboneless man. I believe He 
walked the earth with an air of triumph which no 
other individual ever exhibited. There was a light 
in His eyes never seen in mortal eye before, a decla- 
ration of salvation for the race of grandeur and 
superiority never before dreamed by mortals. I be- 
lieve that Christ radiated sunshine, cheerfulness, 
and hope wherever He went. There were no 
shadows on His face because there were none in 
His mind. He gave out sunshine and joy and glad- 
ness. His very presence gave hope and courage 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


to those who had lost in the battle for the right. 
His presence was an indescribable tonic to people, 
an inspiration that made them feel happier, better, 
nobler. 

“Away with these fellows who go howling 
through life,” wrote Beecher, “and all the while 
passing for birds of paradise. He that can not 
laugh and be gay should look to himself. He 
should fast and pray until his face breaks forth 
into light.” 

It is the inner light that shows forth in the face. 
If you would look sweet and keep sweet you must 
be sweet. You must think pleasant thoughts, and 
have a kindly, generous, magnanimous feeling to- 
ward everybody. If there are enemies in your 
mind, enemies in your thought, hateful, jealous 
feelings in your mind, they will all reproduce them- 
selves on your face. 

If you want to be a joy bearer, a sunshine cen- 
ter, form the habit of flooding your mind with 
healthful, wholesome, happy, kindly thoughts and 
pictures. This is the way to drive out their op- 
posites, — gloom, sadness, jealousy, ill will, all sorts 
of bitter thoughts. Good cheer depends upon the 
mental guests which you entertain. 

No matter what excuse you may have, or how 
tempted you are to hold unkind thoughts, the 
hatred, angry, jealous thoughts toward others, do 
not listen to their suggestions; insist on holding the 
Christ thought, the good-cheer thoughts. Say to 
[ 341 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


yourself: “I am not going to hold an unkind 
thought to-day toward any human being.” No 
matter what may come up to vex or distress you, 
never part with your resolve to keep sweet. If 
necessary, force yourself to laugh and sing, and 
you will soon really feel what you impersonate. 

It is a good thing to keep a list of cheering, 
hopeful, inspiring words and mottoes to repeat 
mechanically when you are out of sorts. No mat- 
ter how badly you may feel, if you do this for a 
little while you will experience a wonderful peace 
and satisfaction, and you will think more of your- 
self and have more confidence in your ability to 
control yourself. 

If you wish to attract friends and to do your 
best work, keep your mind filled with sunshine, 
with beauty and truth, with cheerful and uplifting 
thoughts ; bury everything that makes you unhappy 
and discordant, everything that cramps your free- 
dom and worries you. Bury it before it buries you. 
Adopt the sun-dial’s motto, “I record none but 
hours of sunshine.” 

“It is the songs you sing and the smiles you wear 
That makes the sunshine everywhere.” 

There is ever sunshine somewhere; and the 
brave man will go on his way rejoicing, content to 
look forward if temporarily under a cloud, not 
bating one jot of heart or hope if for a moment 
cast down; honoring his occupation, whatever it 

1 342 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


may be, and not only being cheerful himself, but 
bringing a message of good cheer to others. 

The development of the capacity to enjoy life is 
of inestimable value to those who would get on in 
the world. Whatever your calling in life may be, 
whatever misfortune or hardships may come to 
you, make up your mind resolutely at the very out- 
set that, come what may, you will get the most 
possible real enjoyment out of every day as you 
go along; that you will increase your capacity for 
enjoying life by trying to find the sunny side of 
experience. Resolutely determine that you will be 
an optimist; that there will be nothing of the pes- 
simist about you ; that you will carry your own sun- 
shine wherever you go, and that you will radiate 
hope and good cheer everywhere. 


[ 343 1 


COURAGE AND SELF-FAITH— 
HOW TO CULTIVATE 
THEM 


Conquer your place in the world, for all things serve a 
brave soul. 

“When all the blandishments of life are gone, 

The coward sneaks to death; the brave to live on.” 

I like the man who faces what he must, with step trium- 
phant and a heart of cheer. 

The man of grit carries in his presence the power of re- 
senting insult. — E. P. Whipple. 

Dare to live thy creed. 

All things serve the brave soul. 

“If there be a faith that can remove mountains, it is faith 
in one’s own power.” 

Trust thyself; every breast vibrates to that iron string. 

— Emerson. 

“ X OOK at a man’s eye if you want to know 
I . what his chances are. If it wavers, if you 
read discouragement there, pity him, help 

him,” 

If we were to examine the lives of failures, those 
who are sidetracked, although they possess ability, 
we should find that most of them are weak, nega- 
tive characters; they lack courage, stamina; they 
have no settled convictions, no vigorous, assertive 
F 344 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


qualities in their make-up. They express negation, 
doubt, fear, uncertainty, everything that is opposed 
to creative power. They have never gotten hold 
of themselves, never developed their dormant pos- 
sibilities, never asserted the divinity within them, 
and so have fallen to the rear. 

The chief reason why so many of us go through 
life doing things which are out of all proportion 
to what we are capable of doing is because we do 
not half believe in ourselves. If we only had 
enough courage, enough of the dare in our nature 
to begin things which we know we ought to do, then 
our pride would force us on. The thought of the 
humiliation which would follow defeat after we 
had once declared our purpose would brace our 
lagging spirit and keep us to our task. 

When a man really believes in himself, when he 
feels that he can do what he undertakes, his cour- 
age is wonderfully increased, and it is courage that 
leads the other faculties. 

The Spartan mothers kept the idea of courage 
and fearlessness constantly in the youth’s mind. 
He was taught to be brave under all circumstances. 
This had a great deal to do with the sturdy Spartan 
character. The Roman youth did not fear death. 

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; 

The valiant never taste of death but once.” 

Success is impossible for the man who is fearful, 
who hesitates to decide, who is always weighing, 
[ 345 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

balancing, and reconsidering, who is never sure of 
himself, but must continually ask the advice or 
opinion of others as to what he shall do. He 
carries no weight nor conviction. No one be- 
lieves in him because he does not believe in him- 
self. 

“Lacking courage it is impossible for one to 
prove his convictions; without the courage of his 
convictions a man’s initiative dies; when initiative 
is detroyed one loses power for leadership; and 
when capacity for leadership is lost the individual 
is at once relegated to the ranks as an ordinary 
wage earner, and is thereafter unlikely as a success 
possibility.” 

No one can be courageous who does not believe 
in himself. A man must have faith in his ability to 
do the thing he undertakes before he can show 
courage in it; for courage is simply the conscious- 
ness of power, of the ability to meet emergencies, 
to cope with obstacles. 

If one would be a king instead of a slave one 
must try to think as a king, and to act like one. To 
awaken a sense of courage in the mind one must 
think courage thoughts ; must try to think and act 
like a man of courage. 

There are many ways in which we can cultivate 
courage, — through the avenue of self-respect, 
through self-faith, self-confidence. In other words, 
we can cultivate and strengthen courage or any 
other faculty by approaching it in different direc- 
[ 346 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


tions, by cultivating its branches, or the qualities 
of which it is made up. 

Some one has said that most people who fail in 
life do so because of the lack of some one quality 
which is but one forty-secondth of all the mental 
faculties. Although we may have forty-two strong 
faculties or qualities, if we are deficient in only one 
— self-confidence — we are more than likely to fail, 
for the man or woman without this essential qual- 
ity is the plaything of chance, the puppet of envi- 
ronment, the slave of circumstances. 

One of the best substitutes for genius is self- 
confidence. It is through faith in ourselves that 
we touch infinite power. Self-faith sees opportuni- 
ties, powers, and resources which kill doubts and 
fears. If we had a consummate faith in ourselves 
we should not hesitate to begin the things which we 
long to do, and which we know we ought to do. 

The man who loses heart and becomes suspi- 
cious of his own ability is shorn of the very power 
necessary to realize his dreams, because no one can 
do a bigger thing than he thinks he can. The 
results of a man’s efforts will never rise higher than 
his self-confidence. 

The world is often amazed at the marvelous 
achievement of a very ordinary person who has 
tremendous self-faith. The example of Joan of 
Arc illustrates a great law, just as the falling of the 
apple suggested to Newton the law of gravitation. 
It shows that under ordinary conditions we use only 

[ 347 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


a very small percentage of our possible power; 
that we do not begin to do the things we could do 
if we were inspired by great faith, by supreme 
self-confidence. 

Men of force and courage, who have faith in 
themselves, may take false steps, may make mis- 
takes, — sometimes serious ones, — but in a lifetime 
they accomplish infinitely more than the negative, 
timid character, who never dares to push ahead, 
who has not enough confidence in himself to trust 
his own powers. It is ever the bold, self-reliant 
character, the man of strong convictions who is 
victorious. 

Self-faith, dead-in-earnestness, downright hard 
work and daring have ever accomplished the seem- 
ingly impossible. 

It is said that after Gladstone’s first defeat in 
Parliament, which overturned the Government and 
threw him out of power, he would come to his desk 
every morning with the same sublime self-confi- 
dence, the same faith in the justness of his cause 
and of his final victory. 

To great souls there is no such thing as failure 
in the right. Apparent defeat is but a temporary 
delay; they know that success treads on the heels of 
every right effort, that every germ will struggle 
into flower and fruitage. 

When Cyrus W. Field was thirty-four years old 
he had retired from business with a fortune. With 
practically all the scientific men of his day advising 
[ 348 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


against the practicability of laying a cable across 
the Atlantic Ocean, this man’s faith in himself 
exhausted his own fortune and took him across the 
Atlantic more than fifty times before the days of 
the ocean greyhound. His faith in himself and in 
his idea held him to his task through disheartening 
failures, reverses, and delays. On the very day 
which he thought would crown his struggles with 
success, when he thought his great work was com- 
pleted, the cable parted in mid-ocean, but still he 
did not lose faith in final achievement and in the 
end successfully carried out his plans. 

When Louisa M. Alcott was first dreaming of 
her power, her father handed her a manuscript 
one day that had been rejected by James T. Field, 
editor of the “Atlantic Monthly,” with the mes- 
sage: 

“Tell Louisa to stick to her teaching; she can 
never succeed as a writer.” 

“Tell him I will succeed as a writer, and some 
day I shall write for the ‘Atlantic,’ ” was the 
undaunted reply of the courageous young woman. 
She later earned two hundred thousand dollars by 
her pen. 

“Twenty years ago,” she wrote in her diary, 
“I resolved to make the family independent if I 
could. At forty that is done. My debts are all 
paid, even the outlawed ones, and we have enough 
to be comfortable.” 

The conclusion to “An Old-Fashioned Girl” was 

[ 349 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

written when Miss Alcott’s left arm was in a sling, 
one foot bandaged, her head aching and her voice 
gone. Her self-faith assured her of her ability to 
succeed and her splendid will knew no defeat from 
bodily pain. 

Young people often tell me that they have such 
serious lacks in their mental make-up, that they 
never expect to make very much of a success in 
life. 

Now to begin with, my friends, this conviction 
that you are never going to amount to much will be 
an impassable bar across your life path until you 
remove it. You can never get beyond this bar. 
“He can’t who thinks he can’t” is just as true as 
“he can who thinks he can.” As we think, so we 
are. 

Many a man succeeds in establishing a business 
by sheer force of character, by his boldness, or self- 
faith. The world makes way for the determined 
man, the man with an iron will and a bold, self- 
confidence. Assurance itself is a great power. We 
naturally give way to the show of power wherever 
it appears. 

There is always an element of boldness in a born 
leader. He dares because he is conscious of the 
possession of strength to back him. 

There is something about boldness which some- 
times borders on audacity, — if it is based upon real 
self-confidence, a consciousness of power, and not 
upon egotism, — that commands respect. There is 

[ 350 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


something sublime about a strong man who can 
neither be cajoled, confused, nor stampeded. 

What to a timid man means boldness, even to 
audacity, seems the most natural thing in the world 
to a leader, because he knows he is master of the 
situation. He is equal to the occasion, and bold- 
ness is becoming to him. It is but a natural expres- 
sion of power. 

When Andrew’ Jackson was a young judge in 
Tennessee a bully interrupted the court. “Mar- 
shal,” said the judge, “arrest that man.” When 
the marshal attempted to do this the bully pointed 
a revolver at him and threatened to shoot if he 
took one step. The marshal told the judge that 
it was impossible to arrest the man. The judge 
said, “Call a posse.” The marshal called half a 
dozen men to his assistance, but the bully merely 
smiled, stood up on a seat and threatened to shoot 
the first man that approached him. The marshal 
told the judge that it was absolutely impossible to 
arrest the man. The judge then said: “Call in aid 
from the court-room.” 

The marshal quickly summoned every available 
able-bodied man to assist him, but the bully backed 
up against the wall and holding his revolver said, 
“Come on. You may get me, but I’ll get some of 
you first. The first man who stirs will be the first 
to go.” 

“Your Honor,” said the marshal, “it is impossi- 
ble to arrest this man.” 

[ 35 1 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


Then Andrew Jackson, the tall and fearless 
judge, said, “Marshal, call me. This court is 
adjourned for three minutes.” 

He then descended from the bench without any 
weapon and walked up to the braggart who held 
the revolver in his hands. There was not the 
slightest evidence of fear in the young judge’s face, 
and the bully dropped his hands and submitted to 
arrest. 

Why do we not, all of us, approach our difficul- 
ties as Jackson did his? In most cases it is because 
we do not have the moral as well as the physical 
courage which he showed in solving this particular 
difficulty. 

There are a great many different kinds of cour- 
age, and physical bravery, which often attracts the 
most attention and excites the loudest admiration, 
is not the highest kind. Much of what passes for 
heroism, when in great catastrophes men rescue 
others from burning buildings or perform daring 
deeds in a railroad wreck or shipwreck, or on the 
field of battle, is born of excitement and a natural 
impulse to rush into danger. 

Greater than all these heroes is the man 
who in the face of ridicule, amid the sneers and 
contempt of his fellow-men, in spite of popular 
clamor, stands true to principle, justice, right. 
Moral courage is a nobler, higher thing than mere 
physical courage. 

There is a sublimity about moral courage which 
[ 352 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


rides triumphantly over the difficulties which awe 
timid souls, because it releases from the fear of 
man, the fear of public opinion, the fear of criti- 
cism and denunciation of our fellows. 

Not having the moral courage to stand the jeers 
of a crowd at San Francisco who called him a faker 
and a coward because he hesitated to go up in a fly- 
ing-machine which he knew to be defective and 
dangerous, John J. Frisbie finally made the ascent 
and was crushed to death before the eyes of the 
people who shortly before had laughed at him for 
being a coward. 

This man knew how dangerous it was to go in 
a defective machine, and that he was taking 
his life in his hands, but he could not stand the 
jeers and sneers of the disappointed onlookers. 

Many a youth goes to the bar and takes a drink 
and does many things which he knows are not 
manly or quite right just because he has not the 
moral courage to resist the appeals of his associates 
who laugh at him or call him a baby, and tell him 
he ought to be tied to his mother’s apron-strings. 

There is probably not a person in the world 
so evenly developed and so symmetrical in his men- 
tal growth that he is not a coward somewhere in 
his nature. 

What a rare thing it is to find a man who is 
courageous enough to say what he thinks, to think 
out loud; who has the courage to step out of the 
crowd, to make his own creed and live it ! 

[ 353 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

Moral courage is a great virtue. Many people 
who do not use profane language, who do not 
openly cheat, who are not openly dishonest, people 
who attend church and Sunday school and who are 
called “good Christians” are cowardly. There are 
people who form the habit of deceiving and lying 
because they haven’t the courage to say “No.” I 
have known women of such weak, vacillating char- 
acters that they will often put clerks to the trouble 
of sending articles home on approval without the 
slightest intention of purchasing them, because they 
lack the courage to say “No” at the counter. It 
does not require any courage to return the package 
when the clerk is not present. 

Many people have what might be called long- 
distance courage. They will write, telegraph, or 
say disagreeable, cutting things over a telephone 
which they could not possibly get up courage to say 
to your face. But when these long-distance-cour- 
age people meet you face to face they wilt, their 
courage oozes out. 

Moral courage and self-confidence are the very 
backbone of character. They support and buttress 
a man against all sorts of trials and temptations 
before which a man lacking these falls. They back 
up his chances where the slightest sign of weakness 
would bring defeat or disaster. 

A great many men and women who wonder why 
people do not believe more in them carry the reason 
in their very faces. Everybody who knows them 
[ 354 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


sees there a confession of weakness, a lack of con- 
fidence in themselves. 

How can one win the confidence of others who 
says by his eye and his very manner: “Do not take 
much stock in me; do not believe in me, for I do 
not believe in myself. You are much mistaken if 
you think I am capable of doing anything worth 
while, for I am not.” 

The man who slinks out of sight, who never 
thinks he is just the man to do this or that, who 
thinks that perhaps somebody else could do much 
better, shows that he has no faith in himself, that 
he does not really believe in himself, and people 
take him at his own valuation. 

Many people are all the time “queering” their 
own interests by communicating their doubts to 
others. It is a very difficult thing to clinch a bar- 
gain with a great doubt in your mind. To convince 
another, you must be convinced yourself. Doubt 
in yourself can not bring conviction to another. 

When you go to a man for a position or a favor 
or an order look him in the eye and tell him 
what you want. Approach him fearlessly, with 
confidence and assurance, with a consciousness of 
ability and strength, and you will be much more 
likely to get the thing you desire. Our moods are 
contagious, and the man you approach will feel 
your confidence or lack of it very quickly. 

Everybody admires the manly man, the one who 
carries himself with an air of assurance and confi- 
[ 355 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

dence and who radiates force. It is easy to believe 
in such a man. But the man who crawls into your 
presence like an Uriah Heep, apologizing for 
imposing himself upon you and taking your valua- 
ble time and asking a favor, almost always gets 
turned down. We can not make a good impression 
upon another unless we are self-confident, manly, 
and courageous ourselves. 

It is worth everything to you to have people be- 
lieve in you, to have faith in your ability to do 
the thing you undertake, to bank on you. Your 
own attitude will have more than anything else to 
do with establishing this condition. The world 
believes in the man who dares, the man who trusts 
himself. 

If you approach your task with the expectation 
of winning, with assurance and confidence, you will 
soon gain a reputation for putting things through, 
for bringing everything you take hold of to a suc- 
cessful issue; and the very reputation of being 
master of the situation, equal to the emergency, 
no matter how formidable, is of priceless value. 
It will give a momentum almost irresistible, for 
people get out of the way of a man who makes a 
program and carries it out against all odds. Such 
a man becomes a power in any community. 

No matter what discouragements confront us, 
what difficulties oppose us, what obstructions stand 
in our way, if we hold fast to our courage we can 
face toward the front and push on to victory. 

[ 356 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


There is everything in our keeping up the 
appearance of victory, in never raising the white 
flag as long as there is a breath of life in us, because 
hope leaves us when the flag goes down. Hope 
goes down with our colors and when hope has gone 
all has gone. 

How often it happens in battle that the bearer 
of the colors is wounded. Time and again these 
brave color bearers will not drop the flag, even 
when they fall. They must be wounded to the 
death before they will lay down the colors. As 
long as there is life in them they will keep them 
floating. 

In our Civil War a drummer boy was command- 
ed to beat a retreat. “I don’t know how to beat a 
retreat,” he said, “but I can beat an advance,” and 
he did beat an advance lustily, and the contagion 
of fearless enthusiasm spread throughout the army 
and the result was a glorious victory. 

We must not know how to beat retreats. We 
must keep our banner flying until death over- 
takes us. 

Remember that when you allow yourself to 
become discouraged or morbid, when you think 
you are a nobody and doubt whether you ever will 
be anybody, you are hauling down your colors and 
you are hoisting the white flag, and will soon be in 
the hands of your enemies. 

The first step to failure is the first doubt of 
yourself. If you would succeed up to the limit of 
[ 357 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

your possibilities, hold constantly to the belief 
that you are success-organized, and that you will 
reach your goal, no matter what opposes. Never 
allow a shadow of doubt to enter your mind, to 
dim your courage. Regard every suggestion of 
failure as a traitor, and expel it from your mind 
as you would a thief from your house. 

What matters it if you are poor, or if your envi- 
ronment is unfavorable? Such conditions should 
incite you to greater effort, arouse you' to a more 
indomitable determination to conquer. Stoutly 
deny the power of adversity or poverty to keep 
you down. Constantly assert your superiority to 
your environment ; believe that you are to dominate 
your surroundings, that you are to be the master 
and not the slave of circumstances. This very 
assertion of belief in your ability to succeed, the 
mental attitude that claims success as an inalienable 
birthright, will strengthen the whole man and give 
power to the combination of faculties which doubt, 
fear and lack of confidence undermine. 

Guard your faith in yourself as your most pre- 
cious possession; take no chances with it. Should 
you get into an environment which suggests your 
inferiority in any way, whether by a partner who 
does not believe in you or your ability, and is con- 
stantly trying to poison others’ faith in you, or 
by people who do not understand you, get out of 
it. Make a change, get freedom at any cost. 

One of the most pitiable sights in the world is 

[ 358 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


that of a human being with real ability but who 
has ceased to believe in himself. 

Outside of character itself, there is no loss so 
great as that of self-confidence; for, when this is 
gone there is nothing to build upon. It is impossi- 
ble for a man to stand erect without a backbone 
with plenty of lime in it. 

There are many people in the failure army to- 
day who could yet do wonders if they could only 
be made to believe in themselves, to get back their 
courage and see their possibilities. 

A stalwart faith in God, and in the happy out- 
come of life, will do more to stimulate courage 
and self-confidence and to lubricate the creaking 
machinery of our daily affairs than anything else. 

Faith in God means faith in ourselves, and is 
the basis of all courage. We can cultivate it by 
aspiring to all that is noble and true, by using every 
possible method to improve ourselves, and by con- 
stantly thinking that we can do what we desire to 
do, and can be what we aspire to be. To think 
you can is to create the force that can . 


[ 359 1 


THE WILL THAT FINDS A 
WAY 


“I will find a way or make one.” 

The barriers are not yet erected which can say to aspiring 
genius: “Thus far and no further.” — Beethoven. 

I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of 
a sovereign mind as that tenacity of purpose which through 
all changes of companions, or parties, or fortunes, changes 
never, bates no jot of heart or hope, but wearies out oppo- 
sition and arrives at its port. — Emerson. 

W E have two natures, and the tendency of 
one of them is to backslide, to go down 
hill, unless constantly watched and 
prodded. Like a child left to itself, it will not 
only become indolent, lazy, shiftless, but will de- 
teriorate morally, unless constantly controlled and 
guided. Our higher, diviner self is the parent, 
the schoolmaster that lives in the great within of 
us. This is always encouraging, inspiring, trying 
to uplift the other nature, which clings to the brute. 

By a single supreme effort of the will, a whole- 
hearted, unreserved response to the prompting of 
the higher self, multitudes of careers have been re- 
versed as if by magic. 

The many reformed lives that have traced their 
turning-point to a sudden self-discovery resulting 
[ 36o ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

from the reading of an inspiring book or the 
encouragement of some friend who believed in 
them, show that radical character changes are pos- 
sible without long years of training. The reversal 
is a simple question of turning about, facing in the 
other direction and shutting out the enemies, which 
have deflected one’s life course from the right path. 
The shock of finding one’s self in a vicious or dis- 
graceful condition has often brought an individual 
to himself, and he has then and there resolved that 
his life should be changed. 

There is no human being that can not, if he wills 
it, turn about face and walk in the opposite direc- 
tion. It is just a question of will power, of right 
self-training, of forming a new habit to drive out 
the old; repeating the reverse action until a brain 
path for the new thought, the new act, has been 
formed. 

How often we hear people with disagreeable dis- 
positions or unhappy temperaments say they were 
born that way and their whole lives have been 
spoiled by their inherited fault. But, how shall we 
account for the instantaneous transformation of 
character, which often takes place after a tragic 
occurrence; the making and carrying out of a reso- 
lution to stop drinking, to quit an evil life, or the 
sudden determination to break up one’s lazy, in- 
dolent, or negative habits? How shall we account 
for the sudden reversal of the character of a young 
man who has been regarded as a good-for-nothing 
[ 36i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


all his life? Accident, a great crisis in life, the 
death of dear ones, the loss of property, a railroad- 
wreck, or shipwreck, the sudden facing death in a 
fire, religious revivals, a discovery of one’s self, or 
of the real import of life, have resulted in the re- 
versal of many a life. All such instances are proofs 
that it is not impossible to reverse our thinking and 
our habits and form a new character, a new dis- 
position, even late in life. 

Thousands of people have completely changed 
their nature, their life by a New Year’s resolution. 
I have known men who were outcasts of society, 
who had been expelled from their own homes as 
unbearable, suddenly to come to themselves as if 
by a miracle, all at once reverse their conduct, their 
attitude toward life, and turn completely around 
and face the light ever after. 

If we want to do a thing very much, we will 
manage somehow to find a way to do it. The 
trouble with so many of us is that we do not yearn 
for the things we think we want with that intense 
longing which is willing to make sacrifices to 
acquire them. We do not long for them with the 
earnestness that produces the force to tunnel moun- 
tains and bridge oceans in order to reach its goal. 
We wish simply, softly, we do not back up the wish 
with vigorous action; and the curse of inaction, of 
lax effort, is that one becomes opportunity-blind. 
Everywhere we see side-tracked wrecks, people who 
have waited so long that they have lost the power 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


to act, have become blind to the chance and power- 
less to grasp it. 

Opportunity’s doors have been swung wide open 
by the sheer force of will, dogged determination. 
How many people have opened the door of splen- 
did chance by simply pushing ahead when others 
have turned back? The opportunity is in the man. 
It is in the quick brain, in the habit of mind that 
decides things vigorously and without regret, in the 
quality called “pluck,” in the virtue of persistent, 
determined effort. 

My young friend, do you complain that you 
have no chance in life, as compared with others, 
and that you can accomplish nothing because you 
have nobody to help educate you or push you 
along? Look at your neighbor who puts himself 
through college and is making a splendid success 
of his life out of the very circumstances which you 
are still throwing away as worthless ! One would 
think that the remarkable example of crippled 
boys and girls and of the many in poor health and 
similarly handicapped in life would shame youths 
with good health, good bodies, and all their senses 
intact, who do nothing with their lives. 

How can any poor youth excuse himself for his 
inaction or for plodding along in mediocrity when 
a deaf, dumb, and blind girl puts herself through 
college, writes books, and does other marvelous 
things? I know a crippled girl in New Orleans 
who has for years conducted a night school where 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


thousands of poor boys and girls have been edu- 
cated. No, it is not lack of opportunity, it is the 
lack of the right spirit, lack of nerve and pluck, of 
grit, which marks the difference between the fail- 
ures in life and those who force their way to their 
goal regardless of difficulties. “The way will be 
found by a resolute will.” 

“Somebody said that it couldn’t be done, 

But he, with a chuckle, replied, 

That ‘maybe it couldn’t,’ but he would be one 
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. 

“So he buckled right in, with a trace of a grin 
On his face. If he worried, he hid it. 

He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
That couldn’t be done, and he did it. 

“Somebody scoffed: ‘Oh, you’ll never do that; 

At least no one ever has done it.’ 

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat, 
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it. 

“With a lift of his chin, and a bit of a grin, 
Without any doubting or quiddit; 

He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.” 

Why not memorize the lines given above, by 
Edward A. Guest? They might be a stimulus to 
you sometimes when difficulties confront you. 

Make up your mind that whatever needs to be 
done in this world can be done, will be done, by 
somebody. If you lack the ability or the grit or 
the determination to do it, there is probably some 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


one not very far from you who can and will do it. 
You may not be able to find a way, but there is 
some one not very far from you who will find a 
way, and who will make moral muscle in the doing 
of it, and a place for himself in the world by the 
force of his will. 

If we should take out of history the achieve- 
ments of the poor boy and the poor girl, who would 
care to read it? But for the indomitable deter- 
mination of the poor boy and the poor girl to-day 
we should probably still be riding in stage coaches, 
we would be without electricity, the automobile, 
or even the sewing machine. Necessity not only 
has been the mother of invention but also prac- 
tically the mother of all civilization. 

So the poor boy is not really to be pitied so very 
much after all. There are some tremendous ad- 
vantages he has over the rich boy. Of course he 
has some disadvantages. He, like most of us, is 
sometimes inclined to be lazy. The most difficult 
thing in this world for most people to overcome is 
their natural mental inertia. It is as natural for 
the average man or woman to slide along the line 
of least resistance as it is to breathe. We need all 
possible prods to keep us moving, to keep us up 
to our own standard. 

It can not be repeated too often, nor emphasized 
too strongly, that what YOU are really to amount 
to in this world depends absolutely upon yourself 
and the way you spend your time. Your time — 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


the days, hours, minutes — are the currency with 
which you purchase the goods of life. Nobody 
can possibly help you except by stimulating you 
and inspiring you to help yourself. Only the 
thought and the will power born in your own mind 
can do anything for you throughout the years that 
stretch ahead of you. 

The world never before was so eager for the 
exceptional young man, never called so loudly as 
to-day for young men of brain and brawn. Knowl- 
edge will always be at a premium, determination 
and grit will never go begging for an opportunity. 
If you have these you need never be idle, you need 
never look for a position after your first one. 

I know young men who are in settled positions 
in which they are doing well and yet there is such 
a demand for them elsewhere, that their employers 
have hard work to keep them, even on large 
salaries. They are having all sorts of offers, sim- 
ply because they have made reputations for them- 
selves, made themselves felt by the way they did 
their work. 

The young man who can make himself felt, can 
make his mark on his environment, will make the 
world listen to him, and hear his story. There is 
something in each of us which unfailingly admires 
the aspiring young man struggling upward. We 
inevitably sympathize with his efforts, and in- 
stinctively “give him a lift,” if we can. 

Young people do not realize the value of the 

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


good wishes and the hopes of others, the moral 
effect, the atmosphere that they create. The push- 
ing young man has in this encouraging thought of 
others a tremendous momentum helping him 
along, buoying him up. The very consciousness * 
of being considered a young man of promise is a 
wonderful stimulus, a perpetual tonic; to have 
every one who knows us boosting us in thoughts, 
hoping that we will succeed, rejoicing in every 
step we take upward, is better than a big bank 
account. 

On the other hand, the reputation of being a 
nobody, a lifeless, idle, backboneless, shiftless man, 
acts as a dead wall or a blind alley to all our efforts. 
Everybody shuns the man who is going backwards, 
who is wasting his ability, squandering his oppor- 
tunities. He has to overcome the mental protests, 
as it were, of everybody who knows him. 

Much of the energy that should show in lasting 
results is expended in combating this opposition, 
this condemnation of himself, in the thought of 
others. 

It takes a determined soul to keep up his self- 
growth through life, to be always growing, always 
enlarging, always improving. But this is the test 
of the ideal man or woman. It is a great thing 
every little while to sit down by yourself and 
measure yourself and talk to yourself something 
like this, “Am I growing, am I improving, am I 
reaching out in every direction trying to improve 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

myself, am I enlarging my life or have I ceased to 
be progressive, ceased to push out?” 

Every weak turning aside from the tasks life 
sets us is traitorous to our own self-respect. Life 
calls upon us to fill the place of men and women 
in the ranks of courageous world workers — gives 
us man-sized jobs in the service of our fellow-men. 
If we shrink because the task is hard, if we shrink 
because such effort costs us pain, if we turn from 
the tonic of difficulty because the taste is bitter, we 
forfeit our own respect and that of every one who 
knows us. 

Yet we may be very sure that there would not 
be laid out for us the work of a man or a woman 
had we not been able to do it, if only we willed to 
do it. 

Self-enlargement through self-improvement is 
like increasing the power of the telescope, enlarg- 
ing the lens, increasing its magnifying power so 
you can see further and more distinctly. 

The enlarging, increasing, and intensifying of 
all of one’s faculties, the constant effort to make 
one a larger man or a larger woman, broader, 
deeper, the intensifying of the mental faculties — 
this is what the great life school means to the de- 
termined soul, the aspiring soul. 

I am often asked to point out the qualities in a 
youth which indicate ability, the signs of the quali- 
ties of the winner. 

A never-failing sign that a youth will win out 

[ 368 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

is the aspiring quality, the quality which is always 
reaching up and on. It is not enough merely to 
get on. This may be a coarse and unworthy 
ambition, but the young man who is ambitious to 
get up as well as on, who is always trying to 
broaden his mind, to get a little more knowledge, 
be a little better posted, who is always trying to 
improve the quality, as well as quantity, of his abil- 
ity, is practically sure of a successful career. 

The making and the holding of a fortune is not 
always a test of a man’s real ability. The losers in 
life’s battle are often better soldiers than those 
who happen to be alive and active when the victory 
comes. Often the best ability does not win out 
in dollars or fame. The best fighters in our wars 
do not always return home, but are often left dead 
on the field. 

I have noticed that the youth who is always 
aspiring, always learning, always trying to improve 
himself has ever most admirable qualities. The 
youth who is always anxious to know more, to be 
more, and to do more, is the one who usually sooner 
or later arrives at the top. 

It is the hard worker who has made a reputation 
for himself, the plucky, gritty man, not the timid, 
apologizing, uncertain, indolent one, who is put 
into the position of responsibility and power. In 
any community, when a great emergency arises, it 
is always the man who has done something, who 
has gained a reputation for achieving things, of 

c 369 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


putting things through, who is looked to to take 
the lead. It is personal power that is everywhere 
in demand, and the man who puts vigor and virility 
in his action, who puts pluck and determination 
into whatever he undertakes, is always pushed to 
the front in those crucial moments that are called 
great opportunities. 

I know a young man who has only been away 
from a very modest home a few years who has re- 
cently been offered a ten-thousand-dollar salary 
several times by different concerns. He is not a 
genius, he has no great talent, but he knows how 
to stick to his proposition, he knows what it means 
to “hang on with a bull-dog grip.” He knows the 
power of hard work, the miracle of a ceaseless 
industry and he is willing to pay the price of pro- 
motion. That is all the secret there is in his “great 
opportunities.” There is no mystery, no special 
luck, no marked destiny in this young man’s ad- 
vancement; he simply seized and applied the best 
substitute for brilliant talent — downright hard 
work. He knows how to stick and dig and push 
and save — there lies his secret. He didn’t wait for 
a “sure thing to come.” George Eliot says: 

“No great deed is done by falterers who ask for 
certainty.” 

The men who asked for certainty never did very 
remarkable things in the world. It takes nerve 
to do the things that are worth while, because they 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


are worth while, and regardless of the great odds 
on the other side. A man must have some “dare” 
in his nature if he would win out. 

It is easy to make excuses for ourselves in the 
lack of opportunity, but as a rule if we long for a 
thing with sufficient intensity, we manage somehow 
to get it, at least approximately. 

The new science of practical psychology is going 
to work miracles in the lives of the great army of 
failures; the men and women who have been sent 
to prisons and poorhouses as waste material, stuff 
that is of no further use to society. There are 
multitudes of so-called poor men and women to-day 
who are rich in ability and talent, but who have 
failed temporarily because they have lost their grip 
on themselves. They allowed their will to weaken. 
Many of them lost their property or their position 
in some great financial crisis and became discour- 
aged. There is plenty of latent power still left 
in most of them : they only need arousing. When 
they realize that they are re-enforced by a con- 
scious supply from the Omnipotent Source of all 
life and have that within themselves that can lift 
them out of poverty and failure they will refuse 
to stay lying down. They will rise to their feet 
and prove their kinship. As Phillips Brooks well 
said: “When a human being gets a glimpse of his 
better self, his higher, diviner self, he will never 
again be satisfied until he becomes that other better 
thing which he sees.” 

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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


What wonderful examples we have in the sup- 
posedly good-for-nothings, the criminals even, who 
have been converted to Christianity and made self- 
respecting, self-supporting members of society. 
How many men who have been a positive menace 
to society, all at once, when the spark of hope 
awoke their sleeping natures, have turned about 
face and become healthful, useful, successful citi- 
zens again! 

Some of the most useful men in the history of 
the world, men who have left a tremendous im- 
press on human lives, were once down-and-outs, 
failures. Something touched them, awakened the 
God within and they turned their faces from de- 
spair to hope, from discouragement to expectation 
of grander things. It may have been a book they 
read, a word of encouragement or a little kindness 
that inspired them to make something of their lives. 
Whatever it was, it made just the difference between 
success and failure. It started them on the right 
road, turned them from ugliness to beauty, from 
wrong to right, from a life of dissipation to a 
career of usefulness. This little thing it was that 
made all the difference between a miserable liability 
and a glorious asset to society. 

We each must make our own fight, make and 
keep our own resolutions, conquer our own weak- 
nesses and vices. Nobody can do those things for 
us, although they may encourage us. So far as real 
improvement is concerned, so far as our actual ma- 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

terial salvation is concerned, each of us might just 
as well be the only living being on a desert island 
with only water around and sky above. 

If you have any lack in your nature, if you are 
poor, if you lack money to go to college or to start 
in business, if you lack influence, that is all the 
more reason why you should call out the best that 
is in you and determine that no handicap shall crip- 
ple your life or hinder your progress. It is not a 
very difficult thing to overcome a handicap. It is 
just a question of determination, of clear grit and 
will. This is the best substitute for capital, for 
beauty, for influence. 

You may be poor, you may have nobody to push 
you or encourage you; but if you have will and 
determination you can defy the world. You can 
put them in the place of capital or influence. They 
will help you when friends fail you, when others 
desert you. 

History shows that the men and women who 
have done the most to help the world along have 
developed their characters through contact with in- 
hospitable and apparently unfriendly environment. 

Great inventors worked for years amid want and 
woe and frightful discouragements — denounced by 
relatives, misunderstood by friends — to produce 
something that will ameliorate the hard conditions 
of life. Compare their resolute determination with 
the namby-pamby, milk-and-water desire of some 
of our easy-going, invertebrate youth who would 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


like to do something, if it does not cost much in 
effort or sacrifice or time. 

There is a vast difference between merely desir- 
ing to do a certain thing, and clenching one’s teeth 
and one’s fists with a resolute determination to 
do it. 

The great miracles of civilization have been 
wrought by the men who had so set their heart on 
their aim that nothing could keep them from press- 
ing on. 

What can you do with a man who has such a 
passion for achieving his heart’s desire that he 
braves innumerable dangers, starvation, and death 
even, rather than give up? 

When a man is willing to stake all of his future, 
his property, his reputation, everything he pos- 
sesses in the world, even existence itself, upon the 
fulfillment of his heart’s desire, there isn’t much you 
can do with him but let him go ahead. 

Obstacles look large or small to the man in pro- 
portion to his strength and determination to mas- 
ter them. If a little man, they look large; if a 
large man, difficulties look small in comparison with 
the advantage of what he longs for and what he 
proposes. The harder things go, the greater the 
obstacles, the greater is the grit to annihilate them. 

Some people look upon every setback as final, 
or else they regard it as an indication that they are 
not made of winning stuff. But the man who sits 
down and whines and grumbles at his lot because 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


he happens to fail is made of weak material. There 
is not much in him. 

“What’s brave, what’s noble, let’s do it after 
the high Roman fashion, and make death proud 
to take us.” 

Defeat is only a temporary incident with those 
who are bound to win. They never think of 
regarding it as final. They look upon it as a mere 
slip, and they get up with renewed resolution, more 
determined than ever to go on. 


/ 


C 375 1 


( 


TAKING HABIT INTO 
PARTNERSHIP 


Habit tends to make us permanently what we are for the 
moment. 

The great thing in all education is to make our nervous 
system our ally instead of our enemy. 

For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early 
as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as care- 
fully guard against growing into ways that are likely to be 
disadvantageous. 

In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of 
an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as 
strong and decided an initiative as possible. 

Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is 
securely rooted in your life. 

Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every 
resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you 
may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to 
gain . — Professor William James. 

A FRIEND of General Grant’s, in a maga- 
zine article, relates the following conver- 
sation he had with him while sitting at 
the campfire late one night, after every one else 
had gone to bed. 

“General, it seems singular that you have gone 
through all the tumble of army service and frontier 
life and have never been provoked into swearing. 
I have never heard you utter an oath or use an 
imprecation.” 


[ 376 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

“Well, somehow or other, I never learned to 
swear,” he replied. “When a boy I seemed to 
have an aversion to it, and when I became a man 
I saw the folly of it. I have always noticed, too, 
that swearing helps to rouse a man’s anger, and 
when a man flies into a passion his adversary who 
keeps cool always gets the better of him. In fact, 
I never could see the use of swearing. 

“I think it is the case with many people who 
swear excessively that it is a mere habit, and that 
they do not mean to be profane; but to say the 
least, it is a great waste of time.” 

Every child born into the world is a physical, 
mental, and moral machine, — a habit machine. 
The will power is the superintendent of this mar- 
velous mechanism, infinite in its possibilities, by 
which one can manufacture almost anything he 
pleases. Unlike rigid machinery of iron, steel, or 
brass, which can repeat only the same thing over 
and over again, the human machine, in childhood, 
is plastic, soft and pliable, and the patterns for 
what it is to manufacture are made up as the super- 
intendent proceeds. By repeating acts thousands 
of times we build into the brain habits or tenden- 
cies which the thought follows, because it is so 
much easier to go the way it has been going for 
years than to make new tracks. 

One department of the mechanism may be made 
to follow the lines of accuracy, another of truthful- 
ness, another of industry, another of economy, 
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HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


another of promptness, another of decision, 
another of politeness, another of courage, and so 
on. If the superintendent persists in an exacting, 
painstaking, careful manner of working until the 
delicate tracings of the pattern set for it by parent 
or teacher have become fixed in the soft mechan- 
ism of the brain and nerve tissues, until he has 
gained the power and facility which comes from 
constant repetition, then it will become compara- 
tively easy for him to work out a character in some 
measure approaching an ideal manhood. 

But if, instead of the lines of accuracy and order, 
he allows the lines of inaccuracy and slovenliness; 
if, instead of truthfulness, he trades lies and pre- 
varications; if he cultivates cowardice instead of 
courage; if, instead of straightforwardness, there 
is dodging, shifting; if, instead of enthusiasm, there 
is indifference; if, instead of self-respect and self- 
confidence, there is a trace of slinking and self- 
depreciation, — he will soon find that evil charac- 
teristics have crept in and that he is capable only 
of continuous repetitions of evil. 

“Could the young but realize how soon they will 
become mere bundles of habits,” said Professor 
William James, “they would give more heed to 
their conduct while in the plastic state. Every 
smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its scar. 
The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson’s play, 
excuses himself from every fresh dereliction by 
saying, ‘I won’t count this time.’ Well, he may not 
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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


count it, and a kind heaven may not count it, but it 
is being counted none the less. Down among the 
nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, 
registering and storing it up to be used against him 
when the next temptation comes.” 

A man is often shocked when he suddenly dis- 
covers that he is considered a liar. He never 
dreamed of forming such a habit; but the little mis- 
representations to gain some temporary end, have, 
before he has realized it, made a beaten track in 
the nerve and brain tissue, until lying has become 
almost a physical necessity. He is bound to his 
habit with cords of steel; and only by painful, 
watchful, and careful repetition of the exact truth, 
with a special effort of the will power at each act, 
can he form a counter trunk line in the nerve and 
brain tissue. 

Society is often shocked by the criminal act of 
a man who has always been considered upright 
and true. But if they could examine the habit map 
in his nervous mechanism and brain they would 
find in the tiny repetitions of what he regarded as 
trivial acts, the beginnings of a path leading directly 
to his deed. All expert and technical education is 
built upon the theory that these trunk lines of habit 
become more and more sensitive to their accus- 
tomed stimuli, and respond more and more readily. 

We are apt to overlook the physical basis of 
habit. Every repetition of an act makes us more 
likely to perform that act, and discovers in our 
[ 379 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


wonderful mechanism a tendency to perpetual repe- 
tition, whose facility increases in exact proportion 
to the repetition. Finally the original act becomes 
voluntary from a natural reaction. 

• An expert musician can play the piano at the rate 
of twenty-four notes in a second. When w*e 
remember that each note requires three movements 
of the finger — the bending down, raising up, and 
at least one lateral, making no less than seventy-two 
motions, each requiring a distinct effort of the will, 
directed unerringly, with a precision of speed and 
force, to a certain spot; that for each note a brain 
current must be transmitted from the brain to the 
fingers and from the fingers to the brain — we get 
in this way some little idea of the tremendous 
advantage of a fixed habit, which enables us at last 
to produce automatically that which was so pain- 
ful and labored and difficult in our earlier efforts. 

All through our lives the brain is constantly edu- 
cating different parts of the body to form habits 
which will work automatically from reflex action, 
and thus is delegated to the nervous system a large 
part of life’s duties. This is Nature’s wonderful 
economy to release the brain from the drudgery 
of individual acts, and leave it free to command all 
its forces for higher service. 

How little we realize what we owe to this power 
of habit, which thus takes such a burden from us 
and fulfills, without request or command, so many 
of the demands upon us ! 

[ 380 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


When you start in a certain career, you are like 
a seamstress setting a stitch on a sewing machine, 
or a machinist fixing the gauge for this sewing. 
The machine does the rest. In the same way habit 
sets the stitches, or fixes the gauge, and after that 
the man does the right or wrong thing automat- 
ically. 

After each act of your life you are not the same 
person as before. You are ever speeding on faster, 
faster, surer, surer, toward the good or the bad, 
with all the cumulative momentum force of the 
power of habit behind you. By the very momen- 
tum which a constantly repeated act acquires it 
rushes on and on, ever with increased velocity, and 
every second makes it less and less easy to stop, 
less and less likely that we shall even attempt to 
stop it. 

“Already/’ says a noted psychologist, “at the 
age of twenty-five you see professional mannerisms 
settling down on the young commercial traveler, 
or the young doctor, or the young minister, or the 
young counselor-at-law. You see the lines of 
cleavage running through the character, the tricks 
of thought, the prejudices, the ways of the shop, 
from which a man can by and by no more escape 
than his coat sleeve can suddenly fall into a new set 
of folds.” 

Thousands of people are held in misfit positions 
by the cumulative force of habit. It is the most 
natural thing in the world when you get up in the 
[ 38i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


morning to start out in the same direction in which 
you have been in the habit of going, to do the same 
work you have been in the habit of doing for 
months and years. A habit grows so strong in 
many people that they mistake it for a calling; that 
is, they have been in misfit positions so long that 
even while their instinct tells them that they are 
in the wrong place, habit pulls so hard that they 
can’t seem to break away from it. 

Those habit-bound people remind me of an 
anecdote of a cow which I read somewhere. “The 
incident,” so says the writer, “occurred at the 
pumping station of the waterworks at Enid, Okla- 
homa. A tank stand just outside the building is 
kept full of water for the accommodation of pass- 
ers-by, and the neighborhood stock. A cow, accus- 
tomed to drink at this tank, came for her morning 
drink. The valley was covered with water, which 
stood within two or three inches of the top of the 
tank; but the cow went over the waste of waters 
to the tank. Twice she stuck in the mud, and 
appeared to be in danger of drowning; but by per- 
severance she finally reached the objective point. 
After drinking long and copiously she turned 
about and slowly made her way to land, apparently 
satisfied that she had done the only available thing 
to find water.” 

Many of those round pegs in square holes have 
splendid ability in certain directions, but they have 
drudged away so long in misfit positions that even 
C 382 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OR LIFE 


in the midst of opportunities they continue to plod 
on in the old groove without even a thought of 
bettering their condition. 

Although it is possible by a firm exercise of the 
will to make or to break a habit at any stage, peo- 
ple rarely change very much after they reach the 
age of twenty-five or thirty years, except to go 
further in the way they have started. A good 
illustration of this is Huxley’s story of a practical 
joker who, seeing a discharged veteran carrying 
home his dinner, suddenly cried out, “Attention!” 
whereupon the man instantly brought his hands 
down and lost his mutton and potatoes in the gut- 
ter. The drill had been thorough, and its effects 
had become embodied in the man’s nervous struc- 
ture. 

Habit is practically, for a middle-aged person, 
fate; for is it not morally certain that what I have 
done for twenty years I shall repeat to-day? What 
are the chances for a man who has been lazy and 
indolent all his life starting to-morrow morning to 
be industrious; or a spendthrift, frugal; a libertine, 
virtuous; a profane, foul-mouthed man, clean and 
chaste ? He can overcome the evil habit if he tries, 
but the chances are ninety-nine to a hundred he 
will not try. 

“Habit a second nature? Habit is ten times 
nature!” exclaimed the Duke of Wellington. 

The Rev. F. B. Meyer, in addressing an audi- 
ence of children on the importance of forming right 
[ 383 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

habits, illustrated the difficulty of breaking a habit 
once formed by taking a little lad into his pulpit 
and binding him securely in this wise. Making a 
long knotted entanglement, he wound the boy 
round, first with fine cotton thread, next with 
string, next twine, next small cord, afterwards with 
rope, and finally secured him with a chain and 
padlock. When the captive tried to free himself 
he found he could break the cotton easily, but this 
led swiftly to the string, and this to the twine, and 
so on, until at last he came to the chain and pad- 
lock and found himself a fast prisoner, bound, 
metaphorically, in chains of habit that he could not 
break. 

All the difference between a free man and a 
slave, between a growing, aspiring soul and a 
craven, hopeless one, often lies in that first little 
gossamer thread with which a habit began. 

In his boyhood Sir Walter Scott was very ambi- 
tious to get to the head of his class in school. He 
found all his efforts unavailing, however, until one 
day he noticed that the boy who usually held that 
coveted place in answering questions always fum- 
bled with a particular button on his waistcoat. It 
occurred to the future novelist that if that button 
could be removed wihout his rival’s knowledge its 
unexpected absence might confuse him and cause 
him to fail in his recitations. He managed to do 
this, with the desired result. 

“The hour of examination came,” said Scott, 

[ 384 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


“and the boy was questioned. As usual, his fingers 
sought the friendly button, but he could not find it. 
Disconcerted, he looked down; but the talisman 
was gone, his ideas became confused and he could 
not reply. I seized the opportunity, answered the 
question, and took his place, which he never recov- 
ered. 

“I have often met him since we entered the 
world,” adcjs the kindly author, “and never with- 
out feeling my conscience reproach me. I have 
frequently resolved to make him some amends by 
rendering him a service; but no opportunity pre- 
sented itself, and I fear I did not seek one with 
the same ardor with which I sought to supplant 
him at school.” 

We are apt to think that it doesn’t matter very 
much about seemingly unimportant habits, and that 
it is of no account how we do the little things, the 
non-essentials as we call them. But it does make 
all the difference in the world, because our manner 
of doing the little things enters into our life struc- 
ture. As a matter of fact there are no little things. 
The great majority of things we do in life are in 
themselves trifles, but the accumulated mass of 
these throughout the years is no little thing, for it 
determines our destiny. 

Young people often acquire little habits, pecu- 
liarities, which keep them back both in their busi- 
ness and social life. Considered in themselves they 
are not grave faults, but they often annoy and 
[ 385 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

exasperate employers, even though the employees 
are totally unconscious of them. There are thou- 
sands of boys and girls who are worthy, well edu- 
cated, and very capable, yet who can not get a start, 
or if they succeed in getting one, can not hold a 
position because of just some little peculiarity or 
habit that creates a prejudice against them, some 
trifling thing which, if pointed out to them, they 
could have overcome in childhood. 

Right habit-making is really character-building. 
The habit of rising at a certain hour in the morn- 
ing, of meeting engagements promptly, of being 
courteous, kind, accommodating, methodical and 
systematic, of stating everything exactly, of doing 
everything to a finish, of being scrupulously honest, 
never idle, would prove a lifelong blessing which 
cannot be overestimated. Such habits would wear 
their beaten tracks in the soft nerve and brain tis- 
sue, and become thoroughly intrenched in the con- 
stitution of the mind. 

We can make the will do our bidding, especially 
in youth, and put it to any work we please. It will 
do our bidding, whether it be building up a char- 
acter or tearing it down. It may be applied to 
building up a habit of truthfulness and honesty, 
or of falsehood and dishonor. It will help to build 
up a man or a brute, a hero or a coward. It will 
strengthen resolution until one may almost perform 
miracles, or it may be dissipated in irresolution and 
inaction, until life is a wreck. It will hold you to 
[ 386 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


your task until you have formed a powerful habit 
of industry and application, until idleness and inac- 
tion are painful, or it will lead you into indolence 
and listlessness, until every effort will be disagree- 
able and success impossible. 

While correct habits depend largely on self- 
discipline, and often on self-denial, bad habits, 
like weeds, spring up, unaided, and untrained, to 
choke the plants of virtue, and, as with Canada 
thistles, allowed to go to seed in a fair meadow, 
we may have “one day’ s seeding, ten years’ weed- 
ing.” 

For this reason it is well to “call a halt” occa- 
sionally, “take stock,” as it were, to see what habits 
we are falling into, to “see ourselves as others see 
us” and profit by the vision. 

How many lives with great possibilities have 
been seriously marred by the early formation of 
the indolent, listless, lazy habit, the habit of sliding 
along the line of least resistance, until effort of all 
kind becomes painful ! How many girls are seri- 
ously injured by the lounging habit, the habit of 
lying about the house half dressed, reading silly 
novels, and doing nothing in particular all day 
long ! 

The easy-going, slipshod habit, the habit of 
inaccuracy in speech, of forming sloppy, slovenly, 
sprawling sentences instead of expressing one’s self 
concisely, briefly, — all these things seriously affect 
one’s whole destiny. Everywhere we see men and 
[ 387 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

women who are struggling against vicious, early- 
formed habits. 

Who can ever calculate the harm done to human 
beings, the multitude of lives that are marred by 
the habit of inferiority, the habit of allowing 
one’s self to leave his room without being thor- 
oughly groomed and neatly dressed? 

If you form a habit of doing little things in a 
careless, slovenly manner you will drag this care- 
less, slovenly habit into all the great essentials, and 
it will characterize your life. 

I know people who sharpen pencils so that the 
wood appears to have been gnawed off by some 
animal. Now, even a little thing like that is indica- 
tive character, and influences your other life hab- 
its. The manner in which you take care of your 
person, wash your hands, arrange your hair, will 
be carried over into the more important things of 
life. Our habitual way of doing every slightest 
thing eventually affects the quality of our life work, 
for it is the quality of our accumulated efforts that 
counts. 

Man has been defined as a “bundle of habits.” 
We go through life blessed or cursed, helped or 
hindered by the sum and character of our habits. 

One of the most difficult habits to overcome in 
mature life, and one of the most fatal to all effi- 
ciency, is the habit of being defeated, of not win- 
ning out in what we undertake. 

At first, defeats are terribly trying and mortify- 

[ 388 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ing, but unless we are made of the material that 
makes stepping-stones out of stumbling-blocks we 
gradually become used to them. Unless we are of 
the stuff that turns defeat into a renewed and 
more determined effort to succeed, after a while 
each failure will be a little less and less embarrass- 
ing and mortifying, until finally the habit of 
being beaten becomes fixed. Then our self-confi- 
dence goes and we slide easily and naturally into the 
ranks of the great failure army. The facility with 
which this fatal habit may be acquired is well illus- 
trated by the story told in a periodical, by a college 
graduate, of a chum and classmate. 

“My friend and I entered college from the same 
high school,” says the writer, “and were together 
in several classes. I remember very well our first 
lesson in college mathematics, which we looked 
over together. Mathematics always came hard to 
my friend, and she was dismayed by this first 
lesson. 

“ ‘I don’t believe I can ever get that lesson,’ 
she said, as we parted company for the day. We 
did not meet again till the following morning, just 
before class time. 

“ ‘Have you the lesson?’ I asked; and she shook 
her head. 

“ ‘No. I couldn’t get it. I studied an hour on 
it, and then I gave it up. It’s too hard for me. 
I’m hoping that I won’t be called on to recite this 
time.’ 


[ 389 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


“The problems were announced, and my friend 
was one of the first called upon. She made such 
a complete failure that the instructor commented 
upon it, and she sat down overwhelmed with mor- 
tification. 

“ ‘It seems to me I never can recite another les- 
son in mathematics,’ she said almost tearfully, as 
we left the room at the close of the recitation. 

“ ‘I haven’t my lesson to-day, either,’ she whis- 
pered the next morning, as we filed into the class- 
room. ‘It’s just as hard as yesterday’s, and when I 
thought of how I failed yesterday, I couldn’t seem 
to study at all. But he surely won’t call on me to- 
day, and I’ll make it up to-morrow.’ 

“But she was called on again that day, and made 
as complete a failure as on the previous day. That 
seemed to discourage her completely, for she made 
no further attempt, apparently, to get her lessons, 
but failed day after day, and in the examination at 
the end of the term. With the new term began 
another and more difficult course of mathematics. 

“ ‘I never can take that,’ she said, and went to 
the registrar to ask to be allowed to drop mathe- 
matics. 

“ ‘Impossible,’ was his answer. ‘It is part of the 
required course. You will also have to make up 
what you failed in.’ 

“ ‘Then I will leave college,’ she said; and she 
did so, giving up plans that had depended on her 
college education.” 


[ 390 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


A little more effort put forth by this girl in the 
beginning, a little more resolution and energy 
would have conquered her task, and turned defeat 
into victory. If she had exerted her power to 
think, to grow, to conquer in this first difficulty of 
her college course she would have made life a pro- 
gression upward instead of blasting her prospects 
at the outset. 

We rise or fall, according to the habits which 
dominate us. For, as Carlyle says, “Habit is the 
deepest law of human nature. It is our supreme 
strength, if also, in certain circumstances, our mis- 
erablest weakness. Let me go once, scanning my 
way with any earnestness of outlook and success- 
fully arriving, my footsteps are an invitation to me 
to go the second time the same way; it is easier 
than any other way. Habit is our primal funda- 
mental law — habit and imitation — there is nothing 
more perennial in us than those two. They are the 
source of all working and all apprenticeship, of all 
practice and all learning in the world.” 

“When shall I begin to train my child?” asked 
a young mother of a prominent physician. 

“How old is the child?” inquired the physician. 

“Two years, sir.” 

“Then you have lost just two years,” was the 
reply. 

“You must begin with his grandmother,” said 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, when asked a similar 
question. 

[ 39 1 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


By careful training of the brain and nervous sys- 
tem in right mental and physical habits, it is possi- 
ble to multiply our powers and our effectiveness in 
life tremendously. At seventy-five years of age 
Gladstone had multiplied himself, largely through 
force of habit forming, into a man twenty times as 
efficient as he had been at twenty-five. 

Think of the tremendous advantage of forming 
in youth the habit of self-improvement, the habit 
of reading things which will help and enlarge life, 
which will stimulate, inspire, and encourage us as 
compared with that of reading superficial, over- 
stimulating, vicious, or suggestive literature. 

What a wonderful self-educator, welfare-pro- 
moter is the habit of absorbing knowledge from all 
sorts of sources, the habit of investigating things, 
of going to the bottom of everything that is worth 
while, the habit of thinking, of reflecting. Who 
could ever estimate the value of the habit of close, 
keen observation, of not only looking at things, but 
also of seeing them in every detail. 

If you have the habit of seeing things as Ruskin 
saw them, for example, you are always improving 
yourself, for you will find food for thought and 
study in everything you see. Every walk abroad, 
every visit to the country, every star, every bird, 
every tree and shrub will yield you a valuable 
lesson. 

It was the habit of observation formed as a boy 
which gave Ruskin his wonderful descriptive power 

[ 392 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


as a writer. His father used to make yearly 
trips into the country every summer in connection 
with his business as a wine merchant. On these 
trips, made by carriage, he was accompanied by his 
wife and son. 

“They started usually after the great family 
anniversary, the father’s birthday, on May io,” 
says Mr. Collingwood in his biography of Ruskin, 
“and journeyed by easy stages through the south 
of England, working up the west to the north, and 
then home by the east central route, zigzagging 
from one provincial town to another, calling at the 
great county-seats, to leave no customer or possible 
customer unvisited, and in the intervals of business 
seeing all the sights of the places they passed 
through — colleges and churches, galleries and 
parks, ruins, castles, caves, lakes, and mountains — 
and seeing them all, not listlessly, but with keen 
interest, noting everything, inquiring for local 
information, looking up books of reference, setting 
down the results as if they had been meaning to 
write a guide-book and gazetteer of Great Britain. 
They, I say, did all this, for, as soon as the boy 
could write, he was only imitating his father in 
keeping his little journal of the tours, so that all 
he learned stayed by him, and the habit of descrip- 
tive writing was formed.” 

The habit of using one’s eyes, the habit of seeing 
things instead of merely looking at them, may 
make all the difference between success and medio- 
[ 393 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

crity, between a rich, full life and a poor, starved, 
meagre one. 

The habit of wringing from every experience, 
every opportunity that comes to us, the highest 
lesson it can be made to yield, the habit of wresting 
every possibility of self-improvement out of our 
spare moments before we allow them to slip into 
oblivion, the habit of punctuality, of self-reliance, 
of honesty, of truth, of thrift, of industry, of ambi- 
tion — the whole family of constructive character- 
building, civilization-building habits, if formed in 
youth would, in a few generations, change the face 
of the world. 

What a tremendous difference it would have 
made in the lives of most of us had we been trained 
in self-control, in masterfulness, so that we could 
say “no” just as easily as “yes” ! How many 
temptations we would thus have been enabled to 
resist; how many perils we would have escaped! 
Had we early acquired the habit of self-reliance, of 
depending on our own judgment, of acting 
promptly and with decision, how it would have 
strengthened character, and enhanced ability ! 

What a difference it would have made in our 
destiny had we formed the habit of facing life 
right, always turning toward the light so that our 
shadows would fall behind us; had we trained 
ourselves in optimism, the habit of good cheer; 
had we acquired the spirit of kindliness, courtesy, 
instead of, in our ignorance, wearing grooves in 
[ 394 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


our brains by a succession of unpleasant, antag- 
onistic thoughts and actions! Just think what it 
would have meant to us if, as children, we could 
have been scientifically trained in forming the 
health habit, the habit of being well, instead of 
holding the ailing thought, the conviction that we 
must continually have more or less illness, that we 
can never be free from physical weakness, physical 
defects of some sort ! Why, this one habit alone 
would have revolutionized our lives ! 

If we had all had a fine early training in good 
manners, society itself would be revolutionized. If 
instead of being allowed to grow up carelessly with 
little or no regard to the amenities of life, which 
do so much to smooth the way and “oil the 
machine,’ 1 what a different place the world 
would be ! 

How different the lives of the vast majority of 
us w r ould have been had we early formed a habit 
of consciously, definitely, daily making some effort 
toward self-improvement ! How it would brighten 
the daily routine had we acquired the habit of 
constantly thinking of ourselves as lucky and for- 
tunate instead of unlucky; of always looking for 
and expecting the best instead of misfortune or 
the worst to come to us, of talking up instead of 
down, talking good times instead of hard times, 
a habit of seeing the best instead of the worst in 
others, of saying kindly things about others or else 
saying nothing at all ! Then, automatically, our 
L 395 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


influence would invariably weigh on the side of 
human helpfulness. 

Dr. William H. Maxwell, Superintendent of 
the Public Schools of New York, in a recent 
address to teachers on the importance of pupils 
forming right habits said : 

“Do we not every day see the pressing need for 
the development of such habits? Do not employ- 
ers complain that our pupils are not accurate in 
their work; that they make mistakes in addition 
and have not a place for everything and do not 
put everything in its place? Is not the name of 
the people legion who can not read aloud so as to 
entertain and instruct? Are w r e not constantly 
finding men who can not keep their attention fixed 
on a single task until it is thoroughly accom- 
plished? Is not time everlastingly wasted in every 
discussion from the debates in Congress and the 
controversies in the cross-roads grocery by men 
who can not keep to the point? Is not the world 
full of weaklings who have never acquired the 
habit of taking pains to correct their own mistakes? 
Are there not innumerable failures in life because 
men have not invested their minds with a general 
method of attacking problems — the college gradu- 
ate who can not read Latin at sight because he has 
not the right habit in extracting the meaning from 
a new sentence ; the farmer who has no correct hab- 
its of thought about rotation of crops, fertilizing 
soil and the selecting of seeds; the clergyman who 
[ 396 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


does not know how to attack a problem in morals ; 
the teacher a problem in discipline; or the store- 
keeper a problem in buying and selling? Is not 
the lack of self-reliance in the individual the under- 
lying cause of most of the evils in our social and 
political life; of the poverty in our great cities that 
necessitates public and private charity; of the 
bribery in our Legislature that has brought dis- 
grace on the fair name of New York; of the 
dominion of the boss and the bosslet that vitiates 
our political life and is a continual menace to our 
public schools ? 

“The only sure and certain preventive of these 
deep and widespread evils is the fostering of right 
moral and intellectual habits in each boy and girl 
who attends our schools.” 

If we are to have better, stronger, abler, finer 
men and women in the next generation, not only 
must training in right habits be begun in infancy, 
but our schools must carry on the work that is 
begun in the home. 

It is such men and women that our country, that 
the whole world, needs. We do not want more 
property, more wealth, more reputation, but 
nobler men, superber women, in whom virtue, 
honor, honesty, loyalty, love, all the higher attri- 
butes unite with trained intellect and will to form 
the greatest of all Nature’s products — perfect men 
and women. 


[ 397 ] 


HOW MUCH CAN YOU STAND? 


To stand with a smile upon your face against a stake from 
which you cannot get away — that, no doubt, is heroic, but the 
true glory is resignation to the inevitable, to stand unchained 
with perfect liberty to go away, held only by the higher 
claims of duty, and let the fire creep up to the heart — this 
is heroism. — F. IV. Roberts. 

“F | ^ O seek, to strive, to find and not to yield.” 

This is the epitaph on the wooden cross 
erected over the graves of the intrepid 
explorer Captain Scott and his brave compan- 
ions at the South Pole. What a tribute this is ! 
How adequately it describes the almost miraculous 
fortitude and bravery, the self-sacrifice and grit 
which have scarcely been equaled in human achieve- 
ment. What a grand motto this would be for the 
youth who is starting out on his voyage of self- 
discovery ! 

How much can you stand before you break? 
Where is your giving-up point, your turning-back 
point? The degree of our success in life depends 
very largely upon how we stand discouragement, 
criticism, denunciation, slander, or defeat. 

Mark Twain said he could stand anything but 
temptation. There are multitudes of people who 
[ 398 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


can stand almost anything but failure or discour- 
agement. Their courage gives out when misfor- 
tune overtakes them. Discouragement wilts them. 
A man’s ability to stand up against failure or dis- 
couragement is a good test of his character. 

It does not take very much strength of mind to 
do good work when everything goes smoothly, but 
to do great work under great discouragement, to 
keep one’s standards up in the face of failure, is 
a very different matter. This is the test of char- 
acter fiber. It is the test of the quality of one’s 
timber. 

In talking recently with a man whose business 
had been ruined by the European war and financial 
stringency, I was impressed by his saying he had 
lost everything he had in the world except his grit 
and his determination not to allow any disaster 
or catastrophe which could come to him to make 
his life a failure. 

Now, this is the sort of material of which great 
men and women are made. Resolution, stamina, 
pluck, nerve, grit are the very essence of charac- 
ter, and the chief factors in success. No matter 
how brilliant, if you lack these qualities you will 
never win life’s prizes. 

When the mainspring of a watch has become so 
weakened that it cannot move the mechanism, no 
matter how perfect the other parts of the watch 
may be, its motive power cannot be depended upon, 
and the timepiece is useless. 

[ 399 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

When a man’s nerve is gone, no matter how 
excellent his other qualities may be, as a man he 
is useless because he can no longer perform the 
offices of a man. 

It is said that after a great prize-fighter has been 
knocked out a few times he loses his grip and is 
then comparatively easily beaten. It is a well- 
known fact that when a race-horse that has taken 
many prizes is beaten a few»times it loses its mettle, 
its courage, and will not make the same effort as 
when it was in the habit of winning. 

Not long ago I asked the proprietor of a large 
establishment if he could recommend a certain man 
formerly in his employ for a position which he was 
seeking, and this was his reply: “No, I cannot 
recommend that man. He has ‘lost his goat.’ ” 

In other words, this man had lost his nerve. 
When a man has lost his nerve the best thing has 
gone out of his undertaking. No one feels like 
indorsing such a man. 

A New York business house has a motto similar 
to this, “When other people are ready to give up 
we are just getting our second wind.” 

What is your breaking point Everything de- 
pends upon this. Every kind of timber has its own 
breaking point. At the point at which its resist- 
ance can stand no more it breaks. A piece of soft, 
spongy hemlock will not stand as much as a piece 
of spruce. Spruce will not stand as much as birch 
or beech or maple. None of these will stand 
[ 400 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


as much as a piece of oak, grown in the open on the 
hillside. Here is where in sailing days the ship- 
builders used to look for material for their ship 
knees, that required the greatest resisting timber, 
which could withstand the frightful pressure of 
terrific seas and storms and tempests. Ship knees 
made of pine or spruce would be just as good as 
oak on a glassy sea, but it is a very different propo- 
sition when the ship is in the clutch of a hurricane. 

Your breaking point is a very interesting one to 
your employer. He wants to know how much you 
can stand before you break, how far you can per- 
sist under trying conditions without losing heart, 
turning back. He wants to get a measure of your 
resisting power before he promotes you. He 
knows that a landsman could manage a ship on a 
smooth sea, but that when it is struggling for its 
life with the hurricane it takes a real sea dog to 
keep her from going to the bottom. 

Your employer wants to know whether you are 
a soft, spongy pine timber or whether you are 
made of superb oak. He wants men who can stand 
the strain in a storm. He wants men who can 
stand a gale without wincing, who can cope 
with antagonism, cope with difficulties, men who 
can wrestle with obstacles and not run away from 
them, men who are made of winning material, who 
are victory organized. 

There is always a crowd of human beings just 
this side of success, many almost in sight of the 
[ 4 oi ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


goal, people who do not have quite stamina 
enough, persistency enough, courage enough to 
realize their ambition. 

Staying power is the final test of one’s win- 
ning ability. Any ordinary merchant can do 
business in prosperous times when money is easy, 
but it takes a great merchant to steer a business 
through hard times, through panic with short 
capital. It takes a man with staying qualities, with 
cool, clear grit, to guide a business through great 
commercial crises. 

Courage is the keystone of the intellectual arch, 
without which the whole intellectual structure 
would fall. Everything depends upon courage. It 
is the leader. None of the other faculties will 
make a move until courage leads the way. With- 
out courage initiative is powerless. 

It has been said that courage is the father of 
effort and the mother of success. “Without cour- 
age a man is as impotent as a reeled-up tapeline 
with its end lost inside the case. He may have the 
strength of an ox; his mind may have its inches 
and feet and yards marked with infallible preci- 
sion. But without courage to unreel himself, get 
out into the open, and do some measuring, he is 
sure to rust on the shelf and finally fall into the 
junk barrel.” 

There are people who are so constituted that 
apparently their whole courage and forcefulness 
in the world hang upon the success of their under- 
[ 402 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


taking. If they are succeeding, if they are getting 
on, they are resourceful, inventive, self-reliant, 
they radiate power, they stand for something in 
their community; but the moment any ill luck, any 
misfortune, loss, or failure comes to them and 
affects their business or professional standing they 
lose heart, courage, efficiency. Many of these peo- 
ple can stand up under personal sorrows, the loss 
of those dear to them, but anything like failure 
in their vocation seems completely to unnerve them. 
They look upon this as something which reflects 
upon their ability, something which a more level 
head, a sounder, shrewder mind might have, and 
ought to have averted. Their personal pride is 
touched. They are extremely sensitive to anything 
which affects their reputation. To them failure or 
semi-failure is about the same as the loss of caste 
would be to a native of India. They feel they are 
ostracized from the success caste. 

Why should all your happiness, your comfort, 
your satisfaction in life hang upon the mere chance 
that what you have chosen for your life work will 
turn out well, make you a fortune? Is there not 
something infinitely more important to you than 
that ? Why should you go about among your fellow- 
men with a long face, dejected, sad, and melan- 
choly, because you have made a slip or perhaps 
conditions which you could not control have con- 
tributed to your financial loss? Is that any reason 
why you should go about with such a gloomy coun- 
[ 403 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 


tenance, apologizing for your lack of foresight, of 
shrewdness ? 

The great thing which is of infinitely more 
importance is that you should hold your head up, 
look the world squarely in the face, no matter 
what has happened to you, whether you have made 
money or lost it, been successful or a failure in 
your calling. There is one thing that the world 
expects of you, that is, that you be a man, that you 
command respect. There is something infinitely 
greater and grander for you than to make a for- 
tune, that is, that you radiate wherever you go a 
high and lofty manhood, that you fling out per- 
sonal power, then you will command the respect, 
the admiration of your kind, and they will not ask 
whether you are rich or poor. 

If you are respectable, if you are conscientious 
and clean and have done your best, if you are sin- 
cere, transparent, kindly, helpful, these things 
will stand out so prominently in your character and 
will make such an impression upon the world that 
the smaller incident in your life, the failure to make 
an independence, will cut very little figure in your 
personal history. 

If a man is big enough his failure in a money 
sense will be so small in comparison with the great- 
ness of his life, the grandeur of his character, the 
superb influence of his great personality, that it 
will be scarcely worthy of mention in his biog- 
raphy. Who would ever think of asking whether 
[ 404 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Lincoln was rich or poor? What did the world 
care w T hether he had managed to lay up money or 
not? His personality stood out so grandly, so big, 
that one would almost be ashamed to ask how 
much money Lincoln left. 

It is only a small man who loses everything with 
his money, who feels very poor when his fortune 
is gone. If the life itself is rich, what is in the 
pocket or in the bank is a mere trifle. The loss of 
money is a great loss to a small, mean, narrow, 
stingy, selfish, grasping character. To a real man 
with a big rich nature, a superb personality, a grand, 
lovable character, it is an inconvenience, to be sure, 
a loss of a certain amount of comfort, but it is 
not a loss that is irreparable or that counts much 
in comparison with a rich character, a superb life. 

Success is not measured by what a man accom- 
plishes, but by the opposition he has encountered, 
and the courage with which he has maintained the 
struggle against overwhelming odds, as Alexander 
learned by defeat the art of war. 

The head of the god Hercules is represented 
as covered with a lion’s skin with claws joined 
under the chin, to show that when we have con- 
quered our misfortunes they become our helpers. 
Oh, the glory of an unconquerable will ! 

No man is beaten until he releases his grip upon 
his life aim. No man is beaten as long as he faces 
toward his goal, no matter whether he reaches it 
or not. But a man is beaten when he turns his face 
[ 405 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

away from the goal of his ambition, and when he 
begins to pity himself, to whine, to complain, find 
fault, and try to excuse himself. 

A man faces away from his goal when he is con- 
stantly talking about his failures or hard luck. 
How little people realize what they are doing to 
themselves when they indulge in discouragement, 
in the “blues,” when they think they are nobodies 
and amount-to-nothings. They little realize that 
they are etching indelible failure pictures upon 
their consciousness w'hich will suggest new discour- 
agements and which will present new temptations 
to give up, to turn back. 

There is only one thing for a resolute soul to 
do, no matter what misfortunes come to him, and 
that is to set his face like a flint toward his goal 
and to push ahead, turning neither to the right nor 
left, though a paradise tempt him, or failure and 
dire disaster threaten him. 

It is said that one of the fears of a brave soldier 
is that he may possibly be found wounded or dead 
with his back to the foe. To be wounded in the 
back has ever been considered a disgrace to a true 
soldier. 

You are wounded in the back, my friend, when 
you turn your face away from your goal, when 
you become discouraged and talk about your hard 
luck and your misfortunes. 

When croakers quit, when pluck runs away, 
when hope is clouded, clear grit is just getting 
[ 406 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


down to business. There are multitudes of peo- 
ple who have pluck, but there is only now and 
then a man with that bull-dog grip which never 
yields. 

When a man has lost his grip he is through. 
That is, there is nothing left for him but failure. 
How much nerve have you got with you? That 
is a good question to ask yourself every morning. 
“Have I got my nerve with me? That is, have I 
got that determination, that clear grit which never 
gives up, even when beaten, because it does not 
know when it is beaten?” 

Clear grit is a quality which most people lack, 
yet it is a tremendous asset, especially when it is ac- 
companied by sound judgment. The grit of a man 
who lacks common sense, the grit which hangs on 
to a foolish venture simply for the sake of hanging 
on, is not the sort of grit I mean. Grit and nerve 
are twins. They always walk with a militant 
tread. They never bow. They do not apologize, 
excuse, or whine. They neither bend nor sag. 
They radiate assurance, hope, confidence. They 
have iron in their blood, lime in their backbone. 

I know men who may be stripped of every mate- 
rial thing they have in the world, their property, 
their families, everything may be swept away, but 
I know perfectly well that whatever happens to 
them they will still face toward the goal of their 
ambition. I can not imagine these men giving up 
under discouragement. 

[ 407 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


Not long ago a company of men were discussing 
a certain business man when one remarked, “There 
is a man you can’t down. I have seen him go 
through some frightful experiences in business, 
when the goods remained unsold on the shelves, 
and when his capital was small and money was tied 
up, and when it was almost impossible to get a dol- 
lar from the bank. I have seen him go through 
great business panics when men in the same line 
with much greater capital went to the wall, but he 
held his head, he never flinched and never lost 
his nerve.” 

Now, that is the kind of man the world is look- 
ing for. The man you can’t down; the man who 
will not flinch or lose his nerve under any condi- 
tion. You can rely upon that sort of man. There 
is no use trying to discourage him. 

I once saw the following sign over the door of a 
bank in one of our large cities: “Everything has 
happened to this bank that could happen to any 
bank.” 

This is a bold motto with which to start a new 
banking business after it has been wrecked, but it is 
the kind of note of fearlessness that the American 
people admire. We like the man who, when he 
has failed, simply says: “Let Fate do her worst to 
me; I shall not give up. I may lose my property, 
my credit, my money and my friends, but my faith, 
my confidence, my grip on myself never.” 

During our Civil War, at the frightful battle of 
[ 40B ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Shiloh, following the capitulation of Fort Donel- 
son, General Buell came on the field and asked 
Grant what preparations he had made for retreat. 

“I have six boats,” said Grant. 

“But,” said General Buell, “these will only take 
about ten thousand men.” 

“There won’t be that many when I go back,” 
replied Grant. The army then numbered fifty 
thousand men. 

Grant meant that when he gave up there would 
not be very much of an army to take away on the 
transports. 

The Confederate generals said that Grant’s suc- 
cess was due to the fact that he never knew when 
he was beaten. 

It is the men and women who have never known 
defeat who have lifted civilization up from the 
Hottentots to the Lincolns and the Grants, the 
Wellingtons and the Gladstones. 

To stand up under the terrific strain of modern 
competition one must have staying power, a lot 
of stamina, a lot of grit in his nature. He must 
have a lot of lime in his backbone, and above all he 
must stick and hang, or he will quickly be crowded 
out of the current and thrown up high on the 
shore and, like driftwood, left behind. 

Mark well your giving-up point, your turning- 
back point, for that, and not what you dream of, 
will be your goal. You will never get beyond the 
point where your courage, your stamina carries 
[ 409 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

you. When that gives out, all of your other facul- 
ties give up. Clear grit is the leader. 

Grit makes the difference between the man who 
wins out, the man who goes clear to his goal, and 
the man who fizzles. The man who wins is just 
beginning to get his second breath when others give 
up, quit, or turn back. 

The spirit with which we meet the various vicissi- 
tudes of life measures our fiber, tests our quality. 

A boy scout was met not long since by the Ger- 
mans in a little town in France, and because he 
refused to give information as to whether there 
were any French troops ambushed near the town 
he was told that he would be shot. Without a 
particle of flinching the boy walked resolutely to 
the telegraph pole indicated, and backed up against 
it, while the rifles were leveled at him. 

It is said that he not only did not show the 
slightest sign of fear or flinching, but he received 
the volley of shots with a defiant smile on his boy- 
ish face. 

It makes a tremendous difference how we face 
the inevitable, with what spirit we receive the 
blows of cruel fate, whether like a coward or like 
a hero. 

The manner in which this brave boy met his fate 
made a tremendous, lasting impression upon the 
soldiers who shot him down. 

Recently, in Mexico, a private soldier, Samuel 
Parks, disappeared into the Mexican lines, and this 
1 410 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


is the report of the Mexican lieutenant who exe- 
cuted him: “Parks died bravely, facing the firing 
squad with his eyes unbound and without a sign of 
flinching.” 

Commodore Perry was only twenty-seven years 
old and he had never seen a naval battle when he 
led his little fleet of only nine small vessels, carry- 
ing but fifty-one guns, against the English fleet, 
carrying sixty-four guns, on Lake Erie. 

Early in the morning he had hoisted a flag on the 
Lawrence , his flagship for the day, which bore the 
dying words of Lawrence, “Don’t give up the 
ship.” 

As he led the little flotilla to battle, the English 
guns were all concentrated upon him, and for hours 
his flag reeled under a terrific fire, but he did 
not leave the Lawrence until her last guns 
were disabled, twenty-two men killed, sixty-one 
wounded, and only thirteen unhurt. Perry was 
made of the stuff that does not surrender. When 
his ship was totally disabled, he hauled down his 
flag and was taken in a small boat to the Niagara , 
passing within pistol shot of the British guns. On 
taking command of the Niagara, he wrote on the 
back of an old letter his historic message to Gen- 
eral Harrison: “We have met the enemy, and 
they are ours.” 

When Frederick the Great was a young man he 
showed very decided signs of cowardice. The first 
time he was in battle he ran away in mortal terror 
[ 4ii ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


and but for his faithful generals he would have lost 
the province of Silesia, which was won in that 
battle. 

“In sheer cowardice the man who was later to 
become one of the battle winners of all time ran 
away from the enemy like a scared child from the 
bogiemen. But the cowardice was of the clothes 
only and did not reach" the soul.” 

After the battle he was found in a dingy farm- 
house crying like a broken-hearted child. “It is 
all over,” he said. “I have nothing left. All is 
lost. I will not survive my country. Farewell for- 
ever.” He then seriously considered suicide, but 
on thinking it over made up his mind that although 
a vanquished, humiliated monarch he would try 
again. He buckled on his sword and went back 
to his army, his face so haggard that his soldiers 
did not know him, “his eyes bloodshot from the 
scalding tears of his despair.” Although he ruled 
over only five millions of people he raised the 
Prussian monarchy out of its insignificant position 
and made it rank among the first powers of 
Europe. 

The best of us have days of discouragement and 
moments when we would be glad to run away from 
our troubles and responsibilities. In these times of 
depression and despair, when we feel that we 
amount to but little and doubt whether, after all, 
life is worth while, there is always danger of play- 
ing the coward and running away from duty; of 

[ 412 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


doing something that we shall be ashamed of later. 
It is better never to take an important step or make 
a radical change when feeling in this way. 

When everything seems dark ahead and you can- 
not see another step, then say to yourself, “I guess 
it is up to me now to play the part of a man;” 
grit your teeth and push on, knowing that the 
gloomy condition will pass; that no matter how 
black or threatening the clouds, there is a sun 
behind them which will ultimately burst through. 
You will be surprised to find what power and cour- 
age are developed by this holding on as best you 
can, in spite of all obstacles. 

Courage is victory, timidity is defeat. 

Conquer your place in the world. All things 
serve a brave soul. 


[ 413 ] 


HONESTY, THE CORNER- 
STONE OF SUCCESS 


Let the man in you speak louder than anything else. 

Manhood is above all riches and overtops all titles. Char- 
acter is greater than any career. 

Integrity is a precious thing, above rubies, gold, crowns, 
kingdoms. It is the poor man’s capital. It gives credit, 
safety, power. 

Character must stand behind and back up everything — the 
sermon, the poem, the picture, the play. None of them is 
worth a jot without it. — J. G. Holland. 

Have an ambition to be remembered, not as a great law- 
yer, doctor, merchant, scientist, manufacturer or scholar, but 
as a great man, every inch a king. 

T HERE is nothing we can say of a human 
being so praiseworthy as that he is honest, 
clean and white to the very core of his being. 
A man may be a great genius, a giant in intellect, 
but great brilliancy of mind can not be compared 
with plain, simple, downright honesty of character. 
Every other virtue or quality is discounted in com- 
parison. 

There is something about honesty of purpose, 
sincerity in our friendships, in our lives, in our 
vocation, in our dealings with others, that compen- 
sates for deficiencies or lacks in other directions, 
[ 414 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and which gives mental stability and public confi- 
dence, even though we have only one talent and fill 
a very humble station in life. 

In every community there are persons who carry 
weight, influence out of all proportion to their abil- 
ity, because of their high moral standards, because 
they stand for the right and are not for sale. 

The man who is righteously right, righteously 
true, righteously cleandn his life, righteously genu- 
ine, who flings open the door of his mind and heart 
and has nothing to conceal, nothing to fear, is the 
man who moves the world. People instinctively 
feel his power and make way for him. 

A man who stands four-square to the world, im- 
measurably fixed in his principles, is the most 
precious possession of any community. He makes 
every foot of land in his vicinity worth more, and 
all his neighbors a little prouder because he is one 
of them. Everybody feels a little happier and 
safer because he is their townsman. 

It is as natural for us to have faith in the man 
who is honest, who stands for what he believes to 
be right, as it is to breathe. Human nature is con- 
structed on lines of truth, of veracity, and we in- 
stinctively feel this reality. We are always dis- 
trustful of people who pose, who are not genuinely 
open, transparent. We are naturally suspicious of 
those who keep the door of their heart closed and 
only let us get peeps at their characters, at what 
they wish us to see, people who always seem to be 
[ 4H ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

constrained to show the traits which will make a 
good impression and to hide their defects. 

No man can really believe in himself when he is 
occupying a false position and wearing a mask; 
when the little monitor within him is constantly 
saying, “You know you are a fraud; you are not 
the man you pretend to be.” The consciousness of 
not being genuine, not being what others think him 
to be, robs a man of power, honeycombs the char- 
acter, and destroys self-respect and self-confidence. 

When a poor struggling lawyer Abraham Lin- 
coln would never take the wrong side of a case. “I 
could not do it,” he said. “All the time while 
talking to the jury I should be thinking, ‘Lincoln, 
you’re a liar, you’re a liar,’ and I believe I should 
forget myself and say it out loud.” 

The soubriquet of “Honest Abe” had a great 
deal to do with making him President of the United 
States. Everybody who knew him believed in him. 
They saw in the man a deep dead-in-earnestness, an 
absolute honesty and straightforwardness of prin- 
ciples from which nothing could swerve him. It 
was the unquestioned faith in his honesty that gave 
him such a hold on the hearts and minds of the 
people. Nothing could shake their confidence in 
him. 

There is nothing like a clean record, the reputa- 
tion of being square, absolutely reliable, to help a 
young man along. There is nothing comparable to 
truth as a man builder. Nothing else will do more 
[ 416 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


toward your real advancement in starting out on 
your career than the resolve to make your word 
stand for something, always to tell the truth, 
whether it is to your material advantage or not. 
Truth and honesty make an impregnable founda- 
tion for a noble character. 

How quickly the millennium would come if, like 
Lincoln, everybody told the truth ! How life would 
be simplified if we could get rid of all the com- 
plexities of deception which are now practised! 

Things are so planned in this world that a man 
has to be honest if he gets very far or accomplishes 
very much in this world; for the whole structure 
of natural laws is pledged to defeat the lie, the 
falsehood, the sham — and only the right ultimately 
can succeed, only truth can triumph. 

Right speaks with the force of law. The world 
listens when truth speaks. Lincoln was a giant 
because intrenched in principle, backed by the 
right; but not all of the mighty force which made 
Lincoln a giant among his fellows was generated 
in his own brain. There was a principle back of 
him; a power loaned from justice, from right, 
which made him invincible. 

We all know persons whose integrity no one 
ever questions. They live in honesty; they live for 
it, they live by it; they embody it in their acts and 
lives, their faces beam it, their words tell it, their 
acts proclaim it, their feet tread its path, they radi- 
ate integrity. 

r 417 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

In accounting for the wonderful success of 
Brigadier-General Hugh Lenox Scott, Chief of 
Staff of the United States Army, in dealing with 
the Indians, a writer says: “When answer or com- 
ment is demanded he tells the plain truth. The 
Indians have little use for euphemisms. If they 
wish to know what is the penalty of murder, they 
would rather have the frank statement that it is 
death than all the remarkable phrases which can 
be used to soften the disagreeable fact or to break 
the news less abruptly.” Because of his sincere 
treatment of the Indians, General Scott is known 
to them as “White-Man-Who-Does-Not-Lie.” 

We measure people by the degree of their sin- 
cerity and honesty, by the degree of our confidence 
in them. Some we absolutely trust, always and 
everywhere, and we never question their integrity. 
Others we can do business with — if we watch them. 

Many of us have a wrong idea of what honesty 
means. We are such worshipers of the dollar that 
our chief idea of honesty is associated with money 
or its equivalent, property. 

Honesty is a very broad term. It means that 
you are honest in your thought, that you are con- 
scientious in your work, honest with yourself, sin- 
cere in your life. Honesty means integrity of soul, 
of intention. It means thoroughness in one’s work, 
it means fairness, justice to all. 

Honesty is an entire thing. We can not be half 
honest or half dishonest. If you are punctilious 
[418 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


and exacting in paying your debts and still cheat 
your employer in the quality of your service, if you 
shirk or slight the work you do for him, if you do 
not perform it as well as you know how, you are 
not a truly honest man. There is many a man who 
would not cheat his employer out of a penny in 
cash, but would cheat him by slighting his work 
and shirking every time he got the chance. 

Thousands of people who patronize hotels are 
really thieves. They carry away a lot of stationery, 
soap, towels, napkins, even spoons, especially if 
there happens to be one in their room which was 
left from serving a meal. 

A man in Omaha once boastfully told me that 
his family had all sorts of souvenirs in their home 
which they had picked up in their travels from all 
parts of the world, spoons, small pieces of silver- 
ware, napkins, towels. 

One reason why the guest rooms are so bare in 
hotels is because the patrons surreptitiously appro- 
priate small things, such as ornaments, small 
clocks, toilet accessories. 

Many people think it is all right to take papers 
and magazines from reading rooms. This is done 
a great deal in clubs. The better magazines, more 
attractive periodicals, are constantly disappearing 
and the very fact that people take these things 
when they think they are not being watched is 
proof that they know that it is wrong. 

Make it a life rule never to take anything which 
[ 419 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

does not belong to you, and which you feel obliged 
to take when there is no one looking. If you have 
a right to a thing at all you have a right to take it 
at any time before anybody. 

These may seem little things to you, but they 
often work a great injury. A mud creek is a little 
thing, but it may swell to an Amazon river. 

How many employees who feel insulted if any 
one should intimate that they would take a postage 
stamp or merchandise of little or no value from an 
employer do not hesitate to steal his time by clip- 
ping their hours, coming in late, being absent from 
their work more than their allotted time, shirking 
their work when the boss is not around, or even 
being curt and surly to a customer, thus driving 
him away, or keeping him from buying. All these 
things are just as dishonest as taking his money. 
What is the difference between taking twenty-five 
cents out of the money drawer, or taking a piece of 
merchandise, and stealing a half hour or an hour 
of your employer’s time during the day by all sorts 
of ingenious schemes? There are myriads of ways 
of being dishonest. We can lie with our manner, 
with our expression, our eye; we can lie by keeping 
silent when it is our duty to speak. 

A superintendent of a restaurant or hotel might 
feel insulted if a dealer should offer a money com- 
mission, but if he should purchase goods to be sent 
to his own home and no bill ever came with the 
goods he might think it was all right, or he might 
[ 420 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


borrow money of a concern under obligation to 
him, in order to make a payment on the mortgage 
on his home, and give his note when he knew that 
it would never be presented for payment. 

A man is a purchasing agent for a steamship line 
and he has pieces of silverware, china, all sorts of 
presents in his house, sent to his family at Christ- 
mas time, to gain his favor; or perhaps he accepts 
fuel sent to his home when he knows no bill for it 
will be presented to them. These are the melting 
points of his honor. 

Many business men who stand high in society 
and who are prominent and active in church circles 
advertise goods as imported which are made in 
New Jersey. These men who are so scrupulously 
honest in their private relations do not hesitate to 
put lying labels on their goods. They sell shoddy 
for all wool. 

If we could go into the business establishments 
of some of these men who pose as honest we should 
find barrels of lies. There are plenty of these men 
who hire well-educated expert liars to write decep- 
tive advertisements regarding their merchandise 
so they can deceive the public. Some of the bright- 
est brains in the country are thus employed. 

How many fortunes have been made by such 
educated liars who write cunning, longheaded ad- 
vertisements to deceive poor, unfortunate, gullible 
people suffering with diseases ! How many virtues 
they write into their medicines which only exist in 
[ 421 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 


the cunning of their brain. They describe so vivid- 
ly the symptoms of the various diseases which they 
claim their remedies will cure, and write so con- 
vincingly of their nostrums, that the poor victims 
will even deny themselves the necessities of life and 
take their last penny out of the savings bank, will 
even mortgage their homes and other property to 
obtain funds to secure the remedy which they are 
hynotized to believe will alleviate their sufferings ! 

Not long ago a woman who was in the very last 
stages of consumption went to consult a celebrated 
tuberculosis specialist. She told him that she was 
not able to engage a physician professionally as she 
had no money. He said her vocal chords were 
already affected by the disease and she could hardly 
speak above a whisper. Her story was a pathetic 
one. 

A medical company had guaranteed to cure her 
for a hundred and fifty dollars. She managed, by 
impoverishing herself, to get this money, but after 
taking the medicine for three months she had con- 
stantly grown worse. As the course of treatment 
was up and they had her last dollar, she went to 
the company, told them of her financial condition, 
and begged them to continue their treatment under 
their guarantee. They declined to continue treat- 
ment except on the condition that she would sign 
a paper which they had drawn up to the effect that 
she had been treated by three well-known physi- 
cians, who had finally given her up as incurable, and 
[ 4 22 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


that after this the Patent Medicine Company 

had cured her, and that she was an absolutely well 
woman. She told them that she feared she would 
not live very much longer, and she refused to have 
this lie upon her soul. 

The specialist took her into his hospital and she 
lived just six weeks. 

In the ethics of many business houses, there are 
two brands of honesty; the one, very elastic in its 
application, marked for “business purposes”; the 
other, which has none of the pliable or elastic qual- 
ity, being reserved for home and social use. "The 
business man and the man in private life often seem 
to be two distinct entities. Governing themselves 
by this double standard of honesty, men do not 
hesitate, in business transactions, to resort to 
methods which, in private or social relations, they 
would condemn as “tricky,” “dishonest,” or “im- 
moral.” But, if they are troubled by any qualms 
or misgivings in regard to their commercial recti- 
tude, or the morality of any particular act, all 
questioning is set at rest by the formula: “It is 
customary. Every one does it.” Yet the Good 
Book says, “Go not with the multitude to do 
evil.” 

Many business men would gladly use only the 
home brand of honesty, if they thought it prac- 
ticable. But, because the double standard is so 
generally recognized as legitimate, as the only 
“smart” way of doing business, they are fearful 
[ 423 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

that their interests will suffer, that competitors will 
get ahead of them if they take for their sole stand- 
ard the motto, “Honesty is the best policy.” Al- 
though in theory they advocate the Golden Rule, 
they have not the moral stamina to put it in prac- 
tise. 

These men do not realize that any material gains 
purchased by a compromise with conscience, by 
sharp practise with their neighbors, will turn to 
Dead Sea fruit in their grasp. They do not realize 
that the man who does not take honesty as his 
working partner in business, no matter how much 
money or property he may amass, how many col- 
leges or institutions he may endow, will never be 
anything but a failure. 

The scandal of Christianity to-day is that so 
many men who profess to be “leaning upon the 
Lord” are not square in their dealings. “Men pray 
cream,” said Beecher, “and live skim-milk.” 

Theodore Roosevelt often refers to rugged 
honesty. There is a great difference between being 
honest and being vigorously honest. Thousands 
of people are passively honest who are not actively 
honest, they are indifferently honest, but when a 
man is ruggedly honest his integrity becomes an 
active part of his character. 

Merely not to do anything dishonest, not to com- 
mit a wrong act, is not necessarily being honest in 
the sense of being ruggedly honest. Rugged hon- 
esty is not merely inactive morality. Aggressive 
[ 4M ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

honesty is an active vital force in one’s life, and not 
merely abstaining from doing wrong. 

Roosevelt himself is a good example of rugged 
honesty. He may have weak points in his char- 
acter, he may make mistakes, but not even his worst 
enemies accuse him of being dishonest. Honesty 
means to Roosevelt an active vital force, and not 
mere passivity. 

There is a tremendous difference between a man 
who stands in his community as rugged, aggressive, 
invincible in his integrity, a man who is positively 
honest, and a man who merely refrains from doing 
what his neighbors would consider wrong. 

There is a great deal more courage and grit in 
rugged honesty than what we might call mere 
honesty. 

Every man should strive to be not only honest in 
others’ eyes but scrupulously honest also in his own 
secret, inner knowledge. 

There may be a great difference between reputa- 
tion for honesty and an honest character. “Char- 
acter lives in a man, reputation outside of him.” 
A man’s character is what he is; his reputation is 
what the public thinks him to be. 

Every man ought to feel there is something in 
him that bribery can not touch, that influence can 
not buy; something that is not for sale; something 
he would not sacrifice nor tamper with at any price ; 
something he would give his life for if necessary. 

The pow r er of the right of truth to protect from 
[ 425 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


worry and anxiety is beyond the ability of words to 
describe. The straightforward, clean, transparent 
man has nothing to fear, for he has done nothing 
of which to be ashamed. He has tried to do right 
in everything, to be just and fair, and to give 
everybody a square deal. Why should he fear? 
If he is grounded in the principle of honesty, noth- 
ing can harm him. 

There are some men who are honest enough 
under ordinary conditions; they work conscientious- 
ly for others and pay their bills; do as they agree 
to do, and no ordinary temptation will tempt them 
from the right. But let a very unusual opportunity 
come to them, an opportunity which seems to be 
perfectly “safe/’ a chance to make a good thing 
for themselves by using their official position or in- 
fluence to close a contract or some deal which might 
not be the best thing for those who enter into it, 
and they will strain their honesty for a little graft. 

A great many men are not large enough to look 
down on the dollar. The dollar is the larger, and 
they look up to it. The dollar tempts them. Some- 
how the power locked up in it, what it stands for 
in the popular mind, warps and twists vast multi- 
tudes of men out of their orbit. 

Did you ever notice that when men who are 
supposed to be very strong go to pieces, it usually 
can be traced back to trifling temptations, to little 
things, to some little breach of trust in some ap- 
parently trivial matter? Prominent men who go 
[ 426 j 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


wrong do not usually begin by a colossal fraud. It 
is the apparently trifling dishonesty that makes 
people lose their confidence in them. “Just one 
little lie to help me out of this difficulty,” a man 
says to himself. “I won’t count this. Just one 
little embezzlement; no one will know it, and I 
can return the money before it will be needed.” 

Metals, and all solids, have what is called a 
melting point. At a certain degree of heat they 
tend to liquefy. We test men’s honesty by the 
different degrees of temptation they withstand. 
Some people are very honest in the absence of any 
special temptation. They are indifferently honest, 
but their honesty melts at a certain temperature of 
the temptation. 

There is a certain kind of dishonesty which does 
not seem so very wrong to many people, and this 
is brought about by a curious psychological law 
that the constant doing of a thing, the constant 
repetition of a wrong, gradually robs it of its 
enormity and makes it seem more and more legiti- 
mate. 

We are all more or less guilty of violating the 
strict law of integrity. We excuse certain acts on 
the ground that “they are not so very wrong.” 
How many of us are constantly indulging in what 
are known as “white lies,” that is, what we call 
less harmful deceptions! 

Some one has said that society could not exist 
without these diplomatic deceptions. If everybody 
[ 427 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


told the truth, they say, everybody would be 
offended with everybody else. Nobody could bear 
to be told the exact blunt truth about himself. 

“Truth never excludes tact, which, after all, 
enables us to be artistic in our search for truth. 
Tact and truth can keep house together without in- 
sincerity. 

“One can love truth and yet obtrude it where it 
is unwelcome. There is a time to speak and a time 
to be silent. One can harbor truth without launch- 
ing it out on every stormy sea. There never was 
an American who more perfectly personified truth 
in his character than Lincoln. Nor has there ever 
been an American who exercised more tact in the 
presentation of the truth to those about him.” 

The human mind is constructed for truth telling. 
This is its normal condition, and under the exercise 
of true living and true thinking the character be- 
comes strong and robust. 

Wholeness, completeness, comes into the life 
from truth, from sincerity. Sincerity is made up 
of two words — sine and cere , sine , without, and 
cere, wax. Without wax. And it means absolutely 
pure, transparent. 

There is something in the mind which thrives 
upon sincerity and which protests against all that 
is false, against all sham. Nothing ever quite satis- 
fies this longing but absolute truth. No modifica- 
tion, no deception satisfies this inward hunger. The 
mind thrives and expands when expressing truth, 
[ 428 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


but becomes sickly and weak when forced to ex- 
press whatever is false. 

Living a lie, turning life into a deceptive ma- 
chine, is not only demoralizing, but it is always a 
confession of weakness. The strong, balanced 
mind does not have to resort to a subterfuge. It 
can afford to be transparent, open, because it is con- 
scious of strength and does not need to hide any- 
thing. 

There is a tremendous power in transparency of 
character. 

During the Civil War in America, when General 
Lee was consulting one of his officers as to a certain 
movement of his army, a simple farmer’s boy over- 
heard the General remark that he had decided to 
march upon Gettysburg instead of Harrisburg. 
The quick-witted boy at once telegraphed this fact 
to Governor Curtin. “I would give my right 
hand,” said the Governor, “to know if this boy 
tells the truth.” A corporal replied, “Governor, I 
know that boy. It is impossible for him to lie. 
There is not a drop of false blood in his veins.” 
In fifteen minutes the Union troops were march- 
ing toward Gettysburg. The world knows the 
result. 

If we study carefully the histories of the prom- 
inent men who experience a drop in the public re- 
gard, we find that there was something lacking in 
their early training, that they were not grounded 
in moral principles, that they were not trained to 
[ 429 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 

believe that character is the foundation stone of 
every genuine success. 

The test sometimes shows that what we take for 
steel is only soft iron or brittle metal which bends 
and breaks when the strain comes. Likewise, some 
metals are not affected by different acids, and yet 
there is one acid which no metal but gold can stand. 
So it is when we turn the searchlight of honesty on 
a man. Only the man who is pure gold, who is all 
character, can endure that test. 

Character is power. A man is impersonal when 
in the right. What he does or says is no longer a 
question of personality but of truth. We instinct- 
ively feel something beyond and above the man 
who speaks, that is proclaiming the divine prin- 
ciple. Honesty is the natural utterance of a truthful 
character; and Truth herself is the voice of God. 

When a man is conscious that he is lying, that 
he is trying to take unfair advantage of somebody; 
when he is conscious that he is not genuine, that he 
is really a fraud at heart, that he is practising dis- 
honesty under the cloak of honesty; when he knows 
he is a cheat and a fraud, he is shorn of his power, 
just as Sampson was shorn of his power when he 
was shorn of his locks. 


[ 430 1 


WORRY THE SUCCESS KILLER 
—HOW TO OVERCOME 


Worry is a curse, and the man who could rid the world 
of worry and fear would render greater service to the race 
than all of the inventors and discoverers that ever lived. 

Did you ever hear of any good coming to any human being 
from worry? Did it ever help anybody to better his condi- 
tion? Does it not always — everywhere — do just the oppo- 
site by impairing 'health, exhausting vitality, and lessening 
efficiency ? 

If you have had an unforunate experience; if you have 
made a failure in your undertaking; if you have been placed 
in an embarrassing position ; if you have fallen and hurt 
yourself by a false step; if you have been slandered and 
abused — forget it. There is not a single redeeming feature 
in these memories, and their ghosts will rob you of many 
a happy hour. 

D URING a great financial panic an influ- 
ential Western business man was so 
harassed by the troubles threatening him 
that he felt he could no longer keep his hand on the 
helm or prevent the work of years from going to 
utter destruction. His concern was not for him- 
self alone, but also for the many who must suffer 
with him in the event of his failure. His mind was 
enveloped in such a fog of worry that when he 
needed them most he was fast losing his perspective 
and his capacity for decisive action. 

[ 43 1 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

In the darkest hour of his discouragement a 
business appointment took him to a large publish- 
ing house, where he had occasion to telephone. As 
he stood waiting, his eye was caught by this quota- 
tion on a card which hung beside the telephone 
desk: “When you get into a tight place and every- 
thing goes against you, until it seems you cannot 
hold on one minute longer, do not give up. That 
is just the place and time the tide will turn.” 

The man read the words a second time, and as 
their meaning forced its way into his preoccupied 
consciousness his depression vanished as if a spell 
had been broken. He went back to his office and 
again took up the tangled threads of his affairs; 
but this time with new strength and courage. He 
stopped worrying and used the energy he had 
previously wasted in this way in planning and 
working. And he won his fight. 

What had happened in that moment of enlight- 
enment at the telephone desk? Not one external 
circumstance had changed. As far as outside fac- 
tors were concerned the man’s problem was as 
insoluble as ever, the outlook as hopeless. Never- 
theless a vast change had taken place, but it was 
within. The man had stopped worrying. Faith 
had driven out fear, and the change in his mental 
attitude eventually wrung success from apparent 
failure. 

Recently a New York man committed suicide be- 
cause he feared he could not raise the thirteen thou- 

[ 432 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


sand dollars he needed to save himself from ruin. 
Hardly a day passes that the newspapers do not 
report suicides of those driven to desperation by 
worrying over financial entanglements, by fear that 
they will be unable to provide for those dear to 
them, by fear of suffering, fear of disease or death. 
Multitudes of people have taken their own lives; 
fathers and mothers have taken the lives of their 
children, because of fear of what might happen to 
them in the future. Brooding over the horrors of 
the European war has driven thousands of men 
and women to insanity and suicide. 

Fear and worry have wrought more destruction 
in human lives than all the wars that have dech 
mated the world since the birth of the race. No 
one can estimate the havoc these happiness killers, 
these efficiency destroyers continue to play in our 
lives. They chill the heart, whiten the hair, 
wrinkle the face; they take the elasticity out of the 
step, blight ambition, and kill courage; they stran- 
gle hope, and leave us wrecks of our former 
selves. 

If we could get a bird’s-eye view of all the peo- 
ple in a great city rendered sleepless through 
worry, through fear of what the morrow will bring, 
what a pitiable spectacle we should see ! Men and 
women tossing on their pillows, tortured almost 
beyond endurance by the enemies which make them 
dread the dark, weary hours of the long night as 
suffering invalids dread them, yet fearing to face 
[ 433 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

the new day. Then they get up in the morning 
more exhausted than when they retired, looking as 
though they had come from a sick bed, instead of 
rising as they should, radiantly happy, with an 
excess of vitality that longs for an outlet in strenu- 
ous activity. Many of them resort to stimulants, 
try to brace themselves up with cocktails, whiskey, 
smoking, even drugs, in their efforts to generate 
enough artificial energy to enable them to put 
through the work that must be done. Yet all their 
efforts do not brace them to the point of efficiency. 
They do but a very indifferent day’s work, and go 
home still worrying and fretting, to repeat the 
sleepless, torturing experience of the previous 
night. 

This is not the way of a brave soul. Man was 
made to conquer difficulties, not to quail before 
and be conquered by them. He w T as not made to 
be a slave to worry, a helpless victim of fear. The 
man who is at the mercy of his fears, who says he 
cannot help worrying, has vacated his rightful 
place at the helm of his own life, and turned it 
over to his thought enemies. He has lost faith in 
God, and with it faith in himself. He has turned 
coward in the battle of life. 

As a matter of fact, it is only the little fellow 
who worries, the man who is not quite sure of 
himself, who lacks confidence in his ability to cope 
with adverse conditions. Courage and a sublime 
faith are the natural foes of fear and worry. 

[ 434 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

When you are inclined to fret and fear, to yield 
to the worry habit, just ask yourself what a Lincoln 
would have done with the little things which look 
so big to you. If you are ever going to be large 
enough to conquer your troubles you must not 
worry over them. That is a sure way to make 
them bigger. As Bishop Patrick quaintly says, 
“The rubbing of the eyes doth not fetch out the 
mote, but makes them more red and angry; no 
more doth the distraction and fretting of the mind 
discharge it of any ill humors, but rather makes 
them bound to vex us.” 

Indulgence in worry or fear is always and every- 
where an indication of cowardice, weakness, lack 
of faith. It is an exhibition of mental infirmity. 
A wise man has admirably defined worry as “spirit- 
ual nearsightedness ; a fumbling way of looking at 
little things, and of magnifying their value. True 
spiritual vision,” he says, “sweeps the universe and 
sees things in their right proportion. Seen in its 
true relations, there is no experience of life over 
which one has a right to worry.” 

If our lives were stabilized in faith, in the Power 
that governs and sustains the universe ; if we were 
centered in the perfect love that casteth out fear, 
anxiety and grinding care would not come near us. 
If we would only open ourselves fully without 
stint, without restraint, to the inflow of divine 
power, our lives would become harmonious, poised. 
But worry and fear make a solid wall through 
[ 435 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

which the finer forces of light and power cannot 
penetrate. 

Nothing so quickly exhausts mental and physical 
energy as fear and worry. The actual work we 
perform, in harmonious relations, does not injure 
us. On the contrary, the brain and muscles thrive 
on vigorous, joyous effort. If it were not for the 
awful waste, the wear and tear, the friction caused 
by worrying, fretting, stewing, scolding, we 
would be fresh and buoyant at night instead of 
stale and jaded as most of us are when the day is 
done. 

If we had sufficient power of analysis and of 
discrimination, we could pick out on the jaded, 
careworn, anxious faces of many a man and woman 
the particular lines written by the little rasping 
worries which have troubled them during the day; 
and we could then go on and eliminate from their 
daily routine those that are absolutely needless, 
which make nine tenths, if not all, of the worries 
there are. 

Worry comes from an old word meaning to 
choke or to strangle. Every time you worry, you 
strangle your ability to accomplish the thing you 
desire. Sometimes we yield to it under the 
impression that its mental process is really fruitful 
thinking. The truth is, of course, just the oppo- 
site. Efficient, clear thinking moves on from point 
to point, reaches conclusions, makes plans, accom- 
plishes something. Worry, on the contrary, fidgets 
[ 436 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


around in a circle, gets nowhere, and accomplishes 
nothing. 

Somebody said that if the energy expended in 
useless worry could be stored and translated into 
power, like electricity or steam, it would operate 
all the machinery in the world. 

The habitual worrier is just as foolish as a 
miller who would make holes in his milldam and 
let all the water he had stored throughout the 
spring floods for an emergency run to waste during 
a drought. The worrier does even worse than this, 
for though the mill could not work without the 
necessary water to turn the wheel, still the miller 
himself would be intact. But when you worry, you 
maim and defraud yourself. 

It is strange that many level-headed men who 
know perfectly well their business cannot prosper 
unless put in a sound condition on a hard and fast 
business basis, and who realize that their employees 
must be kept physically fit or there will be deteri- 
oration somewhere, should expect that they per- 
sonally should succeed when a large part of their 
assets, viz., their vitality, their strength, is depleted 
by worry and anxiety. 

If Washington, with his remarkable ability, had 
been a habitual worrier, if he had drawn on 
his physical and mental energy by fretting about 
the details of his campaigns, he would never have 
left his mark on the world’s history. Many of the 
world’s decisive battles have turned on the vitality 
[ 437 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


which one man had reserved for an emergency. 
All of the important life battles are a question of 
mental reserve power. We are constantly brought 
into great crises where we require all the stored 
energy, all the staying force we can muster, or we 
inevitably lose the day. 

How often, my business friend, when you needed 
to be at the very top notch of your mental and 
physical condition for the day’s demand, have 
you found yourself worn out, jaded, fagged from 
sleepless nights and days of purposeless worry? 
Just when you most needed a clear brain, a clean- 
cut mental grasp to enable you to grapple with 
serious problems, you came to your work played 
out with worrying about things that could not 
possibly be attended to outside of your place of 
business, and should have been left there — not car- 
ried home with you in your mind to throw a gloom 
over your home and rob you of sleep. 

What would you think of a man in a great busi- 
ness crisis when it was impossible to collect accounts 
and his goods remained on the shelves unsold, if 
he should go to his bank several times a day and 
draw a hundred dollars out of his capital already, 
perhaps, too small to tide him over the impending 
financial panic, and deliberately throw it away? 
“Insane !” Yes, but you are doing the same thing, 
doing what the miller who wasted his water supply 
did, when you waste your energy in worry. You 
are doing an infinitely worse thing when you drag 
[ 438 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


your business troubles home and worry others 
with them ; worse still when you take them to bed 
with you and struggle with them half the night. 
Have you ever reaped anything but disadvantage, 
loss of staying power, a muddled brain, from yield- 
ing to the impulse to fret and worry instead of 
grappling with your difficulty like a sane, well- 
balanced man or woman? Have you ever over- 
come any trouble by lying awake nights to worry 
over it ? 

No; worry, anxiety, fretting and fuming over 
troubles never did anything for anybody but 
deplete his mental and physical powers, waste his 
precious vitality, and handicap his career. 

If people only realized that every anxious, fear- 
burdened thought is a rank poison, that injures 
health and dwarfs success possibilities, they would 
avoid such thought as they would avoid taking 
material poison. 

We learn very early in life to keep away from 
contact with fire, to keep our hands out of boiling 
water, to keep out of the way of vehicles and all 
sorts of things that would mutilate us and make us 
suffer physically, but all through life we allow fear 
and worry to poison our minds, to mutilate us 
mentally, to make us suffer tortures that are worse 
than any ordinary physical suffering. 

A noted London physician has pointed out that 
if the nerves going into a particular group of 
muscles or the nervous centers governing them are 
[ 439 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


disordered, these muscles become useless, lose their 
tone and quickly waste away. This is the result of 
lack of nutrition, which they must receive if they 
are to remain healthy and active. Everything of a 
depressing nature destroys nutrition throughout the 
system, by ruining the digestion and preventing 
assimilation of food. Whatever affects the brain 
cells, the nutritive centers of the body, affects the 
entire range of health, the whole life. Worry or 
fear injures certain cells of the brain, often beyond 
repair. It cuts off the supply of nerve nutriment, 
and thus disarranges all the normal processes of 
the body. 

No genius is great enough to compensate for the 
wearing, rasping, vitality-sapping, ambition-blight- 
ing influence of perpetual anxiety about something. 
The mind must have freedom for effective action. 
No will power, no amount of industry can make up 
for the fearful drain on the mind and body of this 
enemy of strength and efficiency. 

I know men who are so afraid of poverty, who 
have such a horror of coming to want, that they 
are in no condition to make money. Fear keeps 
their minds closed to the inflow of opulence. It 
stops up the very avenues through which pros- 
perity should come to them. They are so fearful 
of what the future may bring that they have a 
perfect dread of parting with money, even for 
absolutely necessary expenditures. 

This unreasoning, baseless fear is the fatal 
[ 440 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


enemy of everything men strive for — success and 
happiness. It is one of the unfortunate heritages 
of the race. We are born into an atmosphere of 
fear. We come into the world stamped with anx- 
iety, marked with fear of the unknown. 

Primitive man lived in terror of the mighty 
forces of Nature which civilized man has subdued 
to his purposes and made his friends. For thou- 
sands of years it was thought that the terrible 
power which caused the thunder and lightning, the 
tornado, was some great enemy of man; an angry 
god who hurled his thunderbolts to earth. And 
the wrath of the angry god of the thunder and 
lightning of the tornado, must be propitiated 
even by the sacrifice of human beings. The fearful 
storms at sea, the typhoons which wrecked ships, 
were supposed to indicate the wrath of Neptune, 
the great sea god. The eclipses of the sun and the 
moon indicated the displeasure of other gods, and 
multitudes of human beings were sacrificed in all 
sorts of cruel ways to propitiate the terrible pow- 
ers which were supposed to rule men’s destinies. 

The gradual elimination of these crude forms of 
fear has been one of the most interesting things in 
the development of the human race. Knowledge 
has swept aside the terrors of the unknown, and 
when we are sufficiently advanced to realize that 
our God is a God of love, and that -love is law, 
order, harmony, all the fear brood will disap- 
pear. 


[ 44i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


Unfortunately, multitudes of people are still 
held down by some form of our primitive heritage. 
The perpetual presence of fear stunts their growth, 
strangles their normal expression and warps their 
development. Fear is stamped upon their brains 
from birth upward. How many mothers ignor- 
antly try to force their children to go to sleep by 
frightening them, telling them that if they do not 
go right to sleep a great big bear will come and eat 
them up ! How much sleep would a grown person 
get in a situation which seemed as real to him as 
such a picture suggested by his mother is to the 
child? Yet the majority of parents continue to 
people the darkness with all sorts of cruel monsters 
in order to frighten children into obedience. If 
they only knew how injuriously a child’s physical 
and mental development is affected by such a brutal 
system of terrorization they could not, would not, 
be so cruel. The lives of many children, especially 
those who are sensitive, are ruined by it. A great 
medical authority says that at least eighty per cent, 
of morbid children could have been saved from 
their defect by the application of common-sense 
principles of scientific and physiological hygiene, in 
which the main factor is suggestion inspired by 
wholesome courage. 

Who can ever estimate the multitudes of people 
whose lives have been shortened by the fear of 
death! Who could measure the suffering caused 
among the early Puritans and their descendants by 
[ 442 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


the old conception of hell-fire! Who could count 
the victims of superstition and fear! 

Terror of impending misfortune, fear of acci- 
dent, of financial reverses, fear of what others will 
think or say of us, fear of disability to do what we 
undertake, fear of disease, all sorts of fears and 
worries, cloud the happiness and dim the lives of 
most of us. The very faces of the people we meet 
tell the sad story of the presence of fear, worry 
and anxiety. How seldom we see one who really 
enjoys the present moment ! Some fear, some fore- 
boding, something which he thinks is likely to hap- 
pen to destroy his peace of mind, is forever sug- 
gesting itself and haunting him. 

It is not, as a rule, the cares of to-day, but the 
cares of to-morrow that weigh us down. For the 
needs of to-day corresponding strength is given. 
For the morrow we are wisely told to trust. It is 
not ours yet. The things we worry and fret most 
over are those of to-morrow, the evils we antici- 
pate; and most of these, the things that cause our 
unhappiness and shorten our lives, never really 
happen. They are the things which we thought 
might happen, probably would happen — the sor- 
rows, the losses, failures, which we feared would 
come. It is these, not real things, that have terri- 
fied us and robbed us of our strength. 

When we look back over our lives, how few of 
the evils we anticipated really materialized ! Many 
have threatened, but, somehow, a way has been 
[ 443 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


opened out of our difficulty that we did not dream 
of. We have only wasted our vitality, grown pre- 
maturely old and wrinkled and bent, anticipating 
troubles and worrying about calamities that never 
arrived. Many a time in the writer’s life he has 
come to a point when it seemed as if nothing could 
avert a threatened trouble, when it seemed as if all 
were lost. But something beyond his control 
straightened out the tangle and solved the puzzle 
which seemed insoluble. The storm which threat- 
ened shipwreck passed over; the sun shone out 
again more brightly than before, and everything in 
his life became tranquil and serene. 

How many wrinkles would be erased from our 
faces and how the lost elasticity would come back 
to our step, the buoyancy to our minds, if we could 
only eliminate from our lives the shadows of the 
things which have not actually happened to us, but 
which we fear may happen ! 

If those who are inclined to fear and worry ever 
stopped to think of the uselessness of it all, they 
would be ashamed to be guilty of such folly. Did 
you ever ask yourself the question, “Is it really 
worth while to use up precious creative force in 
mere anxiety and fear, when I could produce some- 
thing of value with it? Is it worth while to ex- 
haust myself worrying over things I cannot pos- 
sibly remedy except by hard work, a clear head, 
and the use of my best judgment? Is it worth 
while to permit the continuance of this torture 
[ 444 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


which clogs my brain, impairs my judgment, kills 
spontaneity, chills my enthusiasm, when what the 
situation needs most is the vigorous use of just 
these very qualities?” 

If you have done the best you could during the 
day, quit worrying, quit blaming yourself all the 
time for what you did as well as for what you did 
not do. 

Have you ever done a better day’s work for 
having worried over it? Have you ever got 
through the next day’s work sooner, or any more 
easily, because you were anxious about it the day 
before? On the contrary, you know that your 
anxiety only whittled away your energy and 
drained your vitality, so that in a desperate pinch 
when you needed them most you found yourself 
stripped of efficiency. 

The secret of all strength and happiness is being 
in conscious union with our divine Source. When 
we come to the realization of our at-one-ment with 
the great, creative, sustaining Principle of the uni- 
verse, life will take on a new meaning. Then there 
will be no room for worry, no cause for fear. The 
consciousness that literally “I and my Father God 
are one” helps to establish a sense of security, cer- 
tainty, an assurance that we are not playthings of 
chance, puppets of accident or fate; and just in 
proportion as we realize our at-one-ment with our 
Maker, do our lives become efficient, poised, 
serene, happy. 


[ 445 ] 


SUCCESS AS A TONIC 


Success is a powerful stimulant, and more success is a 
greater stimulant. Our ability, our strength are multiplied 
by our successes, just as they are depleted by our failures. 
Whatever increases our self-confidence increases our ability, 
whatever destroys self-confidence kills ability. 


GREAT surgeon in the army of Napoleon 



said that after a victorious battle which 


had raged bitterly for thirty-six hours the 
moral exaltation of the French soldiers, their real- 
ization of triumph was so uplifting, so tonic, that 
they were literally insensible to pain, to hunger, 
to exhaustion, even to mortal wounds. 

There is no more interesting phase of psychology 
than that relating to the influence of success on 
the human mind. Success is one of the greatest 
tonics known. It redoubles our energy and deter- 
mination to climb higher. It stimulates us to the 
development of powers and resources which, per- 
haps, we had not hitherto dreamed we possessed. 
Each success increases our belief in ourselves, 
renews our courage, and reinforces our ability. 
Every time we win out we feel an added sense of 
power. And what can give greater satisfaction 
than the consciousness of power, the sense that one 
is a real force in the world, that one carries weight 


[ 446 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


in his community, stands for something worth 
while to his fellow-men? 

The mere fact that one is chosen to fill a high 
position braces his courage, buttresses all his inte- 
rior resources and literally forces him to draw on 
them, to make them his allies in his fight to make 
good, to prove himself worthy of the dignity con- 
ferred on him. 

Take, for example, the wonderful change 
wrought in Woodrow Wilson by his election to the 
presidency of the United States. After his retire- 
ment from Princeton University, not long before 
his election as Governor of New Jersey, Mr. Wil- 
son was evidently so moved by the uncertainty of 
the future, and perhaps so doubtful of his ability 
to provide adequately for his family, that he 
applied to the Carnegie Foundation for a pro- 
fessor’s pension. His sudden, and largely acci- 
dental, elevation to the highest position in the land 
swept all such fears and uncertainties forever out 
of his life. Confidence, a firm assurance in regard 
to the future, a belief in his continued success, 
immediately took the place of doubt and uncer- 
tainty. 

There is no question that Woodrow Wilson is 
a very much larger man to-day in actual potency 
than he would ever have been if he had not been 
elected President. His continued advances have 
drawn out possibilities that might have remained 
dormant but for the tonic of success. His election 
[ 447 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


to the presidency of Princeton University enlarged 
the man and stimulated his development. His elec- 
tion to the governorship of New Jersey still fur- 
ther enlarged him and called out new powers. 
But his elevation to the presidential chair in the 
White House has made a consummate call upon 
all his reserves, and every atom of the man is meas- 
uring up to his great responsibilities in this crucial 
hour in the world’s history. 

Mr. Wilson’s elevation to the presidency has 
multiplied his personal power because it has multi- 
plied his self-confidence. The very consciousness 
that the eyes of the world are on him, that people 
expect great things of him, is a tremendous motive, 
a powerful incentive for the calling out of his 
strongest reserves. He has probably said to him- 
self thousands of times since he was made Pres- 
ident, “Woodrow Wilson, the eyes of the world 
are on you, and you must make good. Under no 
circumstances must you show the white feather, 
any weak points, or fool streaks. You must al- 
ways be level-headed, sane. Your judgment must 
be sound. You must use good sense. You must 
not allow your standards to drop or your ambition 
to sag. You must maintain the dignity and honor 
of your great office. When tempted to swerve 
from principle, to play the coward, on any occa- 
sion, to run away from your duty, you must remem- 
ber your position. From now on, my boy, it is to 
be up, up, always up.” 

[ 448 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


The consciousness of being in the nation’s lime- 
light — in the world’s while the European war 
lasts — of being the focus of the thought and atten- 
tion of millions of people is certainly enough to 
arouse the slumbering possibilities in any mind. 
What a wonderful thing it would be for mankind 
if every human being could have the benefit of a 
stimulus sufficiently powerful to unlock all his pow- 
ers and make him do what he is capable of doing ! 
How quickly the world would go forward ! What 
marvelous undreamed of resources would be 
brought to light! What courage, what progress, 
what happiness would crown the race! 

Every conquest in our work, in our lives, adds 
just so much to our strength, gives us new power, 
because it gives additional self-confidence. It 
stimulates us to do the next hardest thing which, 
without the tonic of preceding conquests, seemed 
impossible. Much of the subsequent success of 
“Lucky Baldwin,” of California, was due to the 
confidence engendered in himself and in those who 
knew him by his initial success. The idea grew that 
he was born under a lucky star, and that he would 
be lucky in all his ventures. This gave him cour- 
age to branch out, and he achieved one success 
after another. 

Military strategists well know the momentous 
psychological effect of victory and defeat on the 
soldiers. They know that news of a crushing 
defeat often results in a tremendous loss of fighting 
[ 449 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

power and that, oh the other hand, news of a 
great victory puts new life, vim, and courage even 
into a fagged and disheartened army. They real- 
ize that its stimulus is as effective as a large number 
of extra troops. 

The truth of this has had splendid illustrations 
during the strenuous drive of the German soldiers 
to the gates of Paris and their subsequent defeat 
and retreat from the Marne. The uplift of the 
armies during their victories multiplied their physi- 
cal endurance marvelously. They kept up better 
even with scant rations and with very little sleep 
during their successful forward movement than 
they did during their retreat, although refreshed 
by sleep and well fed. In other words, the mental 
influence of victory, the tonic of triumph, was 
tremendous. 

Army surgeons say the mortality from wounds 
is much greater in a defeated army than in a vic- 
torious one. The emotions of hope, joy, and expec- 
tation increase the resisting power of the body 
and greatly reinforce physical strength and endur- 
ance. It is the defeated army that succumbs 
to pain, that is susceptible to disease, the ravages 
of typhoid, dysentery, and other epidemics. The 
specific germ which produces any one of these dis- 
eases is much more likely to develop in those who 
are depressed or discouraged, because of the body’s 
close sympathy with the mind. The mere thought 
of defeat depresses and lowers the vitality. 

[ 450 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


In the great European conflict it has happened 
time and again that the crowned heads have taken 
the command from generals who have been 
defeated, in most instances not because they were 
not as competent as those who took their places, 
but because of the effect of their defeat upon the 
army. A long series of failures, even of the great- 
est general, will seriously demoralize the soldiers 
under him. They will inevitably lose confidence 
in a man who has been repeatedly defeated. A 
new general who has not been beaten, even if he 
is a less able man, will often have a much better 
influence upon the army. 

Napoleon’s presence in battle was equal to thou- 
sands of additional troops. It fired his army with 
an unconquerable enthusiasm. Kaiser Wilhelm of 
Germany knows his presence at the front adds a 
tremendous impetus to the determination of his 
troops to win. Many a time during the Revolu- 
tionary War, Washington’s presence made all the 
difference between defeat and victory. The faith of 
the soldiers in their general fired them with a new 
courage and enthusiasm. They felt he was a winner. 

Whether in war or in peace the psychology of 
success is a very powerful force in human affairs. 
We all know how we feel buoyed, keyed up, and 
how our faith in our ability increases when we suc- 
ceed in an undertaking, even though it may not be 
a very big one. A person with comparatively 
small ability who has been fortunate in his efforts 
[ 45i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 


to advance, who has been in the habit of winning, 
is able to accomplish more than the man of much 
greater ability who has been cowed and whose 
faith in himself has been weakened or undermined 
by many failures. 

The tonic of success is a marvelous producer as 
well as stimulant. By the law of mental magnet- 
ism one success attracts another, and after we 
begin to win it is comparatively easy to keep on 
winning. It is easy to persist, to press on, when 
everything seems to be coming our way. It requires 
no effort to be cheerful, hopeful, and brave, to work 
with vim, buoyancy and abounding enthusiasm, 
when the tide has turned and we are going up on 
the crest of the success wave. The consciousness 
of progress, of getting on in the world, stimulates 
the whole nature, turns drudgery into delight, and 
makes the faculties give out their best. 

But when we are in the atmosphere of discour- 
agement and failure, when our environment is 
stifling to growth, is poverty-stricken, permeated 
with the suggestion of failure, when the way is so 
dark that we cannot see, when even hope is shut 
out, then it takes a man or woman of sterling qual- 
ities to persist, to keep up courage and press on to 
the goal. When afflictions and sorrows confront 
us and we see the years slip by without any 
improvement or better prospects it takes stout 
hearts to keep plodding on as though we were 
advancing rapidly. 


[ 452 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


These are the conditions that test our stamina, 
our grit and courage. What we do when defeat 
stares us in the face is the real touchstone of char- 
acter. But the very fact that success has time and 
again proved the means of awakening people to 
the knowledge of greater ability than they ever 
before dreamed they possessed, ought to hearten 
and encourage us to keep on no matter how often 
we fail. If we brace ourselves and continue to 
push forward we will ultimately win out. 

There are many stalwart, noble souls who never 
discover their greatest power until everything has 
gone against them, until they have been stripped 
of everything for which most people struggle. 

There are numberless people in the failure ranks 
to-day who, if they could only regain the courage 
they lost when reverses came, would soon get on 
their feet again. 

Many of us are more or less in doubt as to the 
amount and quality of our ability until we have 
demonstrated our power through achievement. 
The first success arouses, feeds, latent energies, 
calls out more resources, and the second success 
still more, until a man begins to see that his poten- 
tial achievement is practically limitless. With each 
new victory his courage rises, his ambition grows, 
his latent potencies develop and he constantly 
increases his power to do greater and greater 
things. 

The stimulating force of achievement has been 

[ 453 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

strikingly illustrated in Theodore Roosevelt’s 
career. Every one of Roosevelt’s successive ad- 
vances, from his election to the New York Legisla- 
ture, soon after his graduation from Harvard Uni- 
versity, to the office of Commissioner of Police of 
New York City, Governor of New York State, 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Vice-President, 
and President of the United States, showed a visi- 
ble enlargement of his ability, a decided increase 
in his powers. After each one of these advances 
he seemed to take on new force. His marvelous 
energy, his enthusiasm, his dead-in-earnestness, 
seemed to increase and carry him forward by their 
own momentum. 

In every walk of life, in every career, the driv- 
ing power of success is the same. Take, for exam- 
ple, the girl who thinks she has musical ability and 
who struggles for years against poverty and all 
sorts of opposition from her parents and others, 
who think she is laboring under a delusion, and 
who is on the point of giving up under discour- 
agement when she makes a hit at some local con- 
cert. The stimulus is instantaneous. When the 
people applaud her, show belief in her, she takes 
new heart, redoubles her efforts and finally wins 
out. On her way to an established place in the 
musical world, every little victory is a new encour- 
ager that helps her onward. 

It is said that Henry Ford’s action in the unprec- 
edented raising of the salaries of all employees 
[ 454 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


in his factories has worked a miracle in the ambi- 
tion, the aspirations, and the enthusiasm of every 
one of them. Even ordinary workmen, who never 
before exhibited any unusual ambition or energy, 
have braced up tremendously under the tonic of 
new hope, new possibilities in their lives. 

I know a publisher who for many years had 
struggled against ill fortune. Every enterprise he 
undertook failed. The man had excellent ability, 
but for some reason or another everything seemed 
to go against him. He had almost lost heart when 
he purchased a newspaper which was so run down 
that he got it for a song. He made up his mind 
that this should be his last venture, and he threw 
himself into the work of building up his paper 
with the boldness and energy of desperation. The 
result was that he succeeded. In fact, his success 
was so complete and so rapid that it gave him an 
idea of tremendous possibilities in that line. His 
courage rose as his funds increased. He started 
other publications, and to-day he owns a number 
of successful papers and periodicals. 

It is doubtful whether there is any human being 
who would not become discouraged after the 
depressing influence of years of defeat and failure. 
But to be temporarily discouraged is one thing; to 
give up the fight is another and quite a different 
thing. » No one is beaten until he lays down his 
arms. The man or woman who continues to fight 
in spite of reverses can not be defeated. 

[ 455 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

During the Abolition movement in this coun- 
try many of its enthusiastic and zealous advocates, 
men and women of high ideals, after working 
against fearful odds for a time, became discour- 
aged and gave up. They could not stand the jeers 
and hisses, the abuse and denunciation, the physical 
violence of the pro-slavery element — in the early 
days so overwhelmingly preponderant. It took 
men of the Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd 
Garrison mole, to stand up against the malignant 
thrusts of the enemy, the taunts, the coarse abuse, 
the rotten eggs, the danger of bodily injury, 
imprisonment, and the threats of the gallows. It 
took a Henry Ward Beecher to stand up against 
the pro-slavery mob in England, where sentiment 
among a large section was so rampant against 
abolition. During the early days of our Civil 
War it wac almost as much as a man’s life was 
worth for an anti-slavery sympathizer to express 
his feelings before a public audience in that coun- 
try. But in Beecher the mad mob met its match. 
What cared one of his stamina and fiber for the 
derision, the hisses and threats of a turbulent angry 
crowd? Unflinchingly he stood before them. 
They could not squelch or down him. For three 
hours he waited in a hall packed with slavery- 
sympathizers, who were doing their best to silence 
him, to drive him off the platform. But he would 
not be driven off, he would not be silenced. There 
he stood firm and unafraid as eternal principle, 
until he compelled his baffled tormentors to listen. 

[ 456 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


And listen they did, until the very men who had 
gone to the hall threatening even bodily harm if 
necessary to prevent the orator from speaking ap- 
plauded him before he left the platform. 

Emerson tells us, “The hero is the man who 
is immovably centered.” That man or that 
woman who is backed by a great motive is “im- 
movably centered.” The tonic of such a motive is 
greater even than the tonic of success. To fight for 
a great aim is success, the noblest of all successes. 
The tonic of a great motive, or the blighting, blast- 
ing effect of the lack of it, is illustrated every day, 
even in the most isolated communities. 

Every human being is sent into the world to 
co-operate with the Creator in working for some 
great motive. Can there be a greater stimulus to 
endeavor than this? Can anything be more inspir- 
ing, more heartening and sustaining than the fact 
that one is born for a glorious purpose, to fill a 
grand mission in life? 

The representatives of great sovereigns, ambas- 
sadors of foreign countries at Washington, feel 
enlarged, ennobled because of their commission. 
They reflect the dignity of the country and the 
ruler they represent. They show it in their bear- 
ing, in their air of confidence and assurance, an 
assurance that is backed by the power and author- 
ity and the support of a great nation. They feel 
enlarged, strengthened by the power they repre- 
sent, just as Mr. Wilson felt an added power and 
dignity when elected to the presidency. 

[ 457 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


When a human being realizes that he is an 
ambassador of the Almighty ; that he was sent here 
to play a special part in the drama of the race, 
that he was entrusted by his Sovereign with the per- 
formance of a divine service in the working out of 
the great plan of the universe, it adds tremen- 
dously to his self-confidences, gives him a great 
added force of power and dignity. The sense of 
a sublime mission gives definiteness, fine poise and 
balance to one’s life. It keeps one always in tune 
with the Infinite. 

If you would conquer in life and prove worthy 
of your ambassadorship, if you would realize your 
dignity you must hold the royal thought, you must 
feel the greatness of your origin, of your inherit- 
ance. This will buttress you against all failure and 
disappointment, give you courage and strength to 
fight on, even against superhuman odds, until you 
attain that for which you fight. 

There is no more potent success tonic than the 
constant reminder of the larger, the greater pos- 
sible self involved in every child of God. There 
is something in every one of us infinitely bigger, 
stronger, more capable than what we have yet 
evolved. There is a grander possibility for you 
than anything you have yet done. Until you have 
drawn out and used every atom of your greater 
reserves, you don’t know what you are capable of. 
The limit of human power has not yet been 
reached. Man has godlike possibilities. 

[ 458 ] 


WILL IT PAY TO GO TO 
COLLEGE— IF SO 
WHERE ? 


Education is the cutting and polishing of a rough diamond. 

Does it pay to experience the joy of self-discovery, to 
open up whole continents of possibilities in one’s nature which 
might otherwise remain undiscovered? 

Does it pay to have one’s mentality stirred by the passion 
for expansion, to feel the tonic of growth, the indescribable 
satisfaction which comes from the consciousness of per- 
petual enlargement? 

E VERY year thousands of boys and girls are 
asking this question in one form or an- 
other — Shall I go to college? Does a col- 
lege education pay? Can I afford it? Young peo- 
ple are constantly asking my advice as to how they 
shall answer the question. Here are two letters 
recently received typical of the many that come to 
me on the subject. They represent the two classes 
of boys that go to college : the one whose parents 
pay his way through, and the one who must work 
and pay his own way as he goes. 

The first of these is from a New York boy. He 
writes : 

“My parents want me to go to college, but I 

[ 459 I 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


want to get a job and go into business just as soon 
as I graduate from high school. I don’t see what 
good a college education is going to be to me, as 
I am expecting to become a business man and not a 
lawyer, or a doctor, or anything of that sort. My 
folks asked me to write to you about this matter.” 

The other is from a country boy, who says : 

“I am a farmer’s son, but I want to become a 
lawyer. I am healthy and strong, but my folks can 
not afford to send me through college. I have read 
lots of stories about boys who have worked their 
way through college, but my folks think that most 
of these stories are yarns, and they think it would 
be almost impossible for a fellow like me to work 
his way. I wish you would tell me just what you 
think about this matter.” 

Having started life as a poor boy, and worked 
my way through school and college, and having 
had a lot of all kinds of experience since my gradu- 
ation, from a personal viewpoint, I have no hesi- 
tation in saying, that, provided a boy or girl is de- 
termined to get the most possible out of it, nothing 
else in life will pay better than a college education, 
even though it must be obtained by sacrifice and 
great effort. 

But the question whether every boy and girl 
should go to college can not be answered so readily. 

Thousands in the graduating classes of our high 
schools and fitting schools are now wrestling with 
this great life-question, whether or not they shall 
[ 46o ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


continue their education in a college or university. 
All sorts of opinions prevail regarding this prob- 
lem of higher education, consequently, various 
kinds of advice will be given to those seeking it, 
according to the different viewpoints of the advis- 
ers. You will find some who will talk scornfully 
about “college-bred failures’’ and “book-learned 
fools.” Others will speak boastfully of the suc- 
cessful men whose only course of study has been 
in the University of Hard Knocks. 

On the other hand, you will find those who ex- 
aggerate the value and importance of a college ed- 
ucation. For instance, some will claim that 
no one can have a thorough appreciation of life’s 
values unless he spends four years or more in some 
college or university. Others will quote statistics 
to show that the college-bred man has superior 
chances for success. 

It is well, therefore, to weigh this question care- 
fully and look at it from all sides, neither minimiz- 
ing nor exaggerating its importance. 

Let it be clearly understood then, at the start, 
that it is a fact that some men actually have been 
injured by their college course. They have been 
turned out of college mere impractical theorists. 
Their book learning has been a hindrance rather 
than a help in the competitive struggle for exist- 
ence. 

On the other side, it is also a fact that there 
are tens of thousands even of successful men who 

[ 461 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

bemoan their lack of a college education. Every- 
where you will meet these men who, in their youth, 
for one reason or another, thought it impossible to 
go through college, and have felt the handicap of 
a poor education throughout their lives. 

Lincoln was a self-educated man, but he regret- 
ted all his life that he never had had an opportunity 
to go to college. He felt the lack of the broader 
culture a college course would have given him. 
When on his way to Washington before his first 
inauguration, Rutgers College was pointed out to 
him as they passed it, and he exclaimed: “Ah! that 
is what I have always regretted, — the want of a 
college education. Those who have it should 
thank God for it.” 

Bishop John H. Vincent, founder of Chautau- 
qua, speaking of his lack of a college education, 
said: “It has been my thorn in the flesh, and I feel 
the sting of it in the society of college men. By 
voice, by pen, by example in the ordering of my 
own son’s education, and by the Chautauqua Serv- 
ice, I have for years devoted my energies to the 
cause of higher education.” 

Mr. Chauncey Depew says : “It has been my for- 
tune for a great many years as attorney, as counsel, 
as business associate in many enterprises, to become 
intimately acquainted with hundreds of men who, 
without any equipment or education, have accumu- 
lated millions of dollars. I have not met one of 
them who did not lament either the neglect of his 
[ 462 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


parents or of his own poor opportunities that failed 
to give him the equipment. I never met one of 
them who did not feel, in the presence of cultured 
people, a certain sense of mortification which no 
money could pay for. I have never met one of 
them who was not prepared to sacrifice his whole 
fortune that his boy should never feel that morti- 
fication.” 

In the greed for gain, many a boy has been taken 
from school and put into a store or office when he 
had scarcely acquired the rudiments of an educa^ 
tion, seriously imperiling his chances of becoming 
a full man. 

I was recently talking with a business man who 
is in the midst of the great activities of a large 
city, who dresses well, and lives well, but who, 
every time he opens his mouth, condemns himself, 
betrays his shocking ignorance of almost everything 
outside of his own little specialty. His informa- 
tion is so limited, even on current topics, that it is 
painful to try to carry on a conversation with him. 
It does not seem possible that a man could do 
business in a big city and be so ignorant of every- 
thing outside of his own narrow groove. 

In considering the question of a college educa- 
tion, remember that, however successful you may 
be in a material way, however much money you 
may accumulate, your greatest wealth, your only 
real wealth, you will always carry with you. It is 
not in property, not in lands or estates, not in 

[ 463 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


houses, furniture or clothes ; it is inside of your own 
skin. Here is your greatest wealth, your most pre- 
cious possession. 

Some time ago some one in South Africa found 
a diamond weighing an ounce and three-quarters. 
Ground and polished, this diamond is said to be 
worth several million dollars. But what would 
it be worth in the rough? Suppose it never could 
have been cut, or that the owner insisted upon 
grinding only one or two little facets, just enough 
to let in sufficient light to reveal the quality of the 
stone, but not enough to bring out its great wealth 
of beauty, its riches of brilliancy, would any one 
pay that enormous amount of money for it? 
Would any one care to own that stone? 

Education is the cutting and polishing of a 
rough diamond. Your education is grinding the 
facets of your mind, letting in more light, bringing 
out more precious values, and the further you go 
in this process, the broader your education, the 
greater the values you will bring out. 

Whether or not a college education pays in the 
larger sense depends upon the ambition of the in- 
quirer. Do you want to be just as much of a man 
as possible, or do you want merely to get as much 
money as you can ? 

If you desire an education simply to increase 
your capacity to grasp, seize, and hold ma- 
terial things; to get a little more away from com- 
petitors by your long-headed methods, your ability 
[ 464 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


to scheme ways and means of piling up more dol- 
lars, then I do not advise you to go to college, 
because an educated scoundrel is the worst sort of 
a scoundrel. But if you want to be of real help 
to your generation; if your ambition is to be just 
as much of a man as possible, to be larger and 
truer and nobler; if you wish to make the most of 
the material the Creator has given you, then, by all 
means get all the knowledge you can transmute 
into real power. 

The purpose of an education is twofold — to 
train for life making as well as for living making. 
While its highest aim is to enable one to make 
more of his life, to live the abundant life of the 
spirit, a college training is also calculated to fit a 
youth for the practical and vital work of making 
a living. 

As the athlete trains his muscles in order to 
make them act more quickly and accurately, and to 
respond automatically to the will, so a four years’ 
college course trains the mental muscles, disciplines 
the intellect, quickens the reasoning power, sharp- 
ens and intensifies all the faculties, and makes them 
responsive to the will. 

The late Timothy Dwight, the greatest president 
Yale has had, said: “The distinctive work of a 
college is to develop thought-power. It receives 
its pupil just as his mind is opening toward ma- 
turity, — just as he is beginning to emerge from 
boyhood into manhood and is becoming, after a 

[ 465 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

manner and measure unknown before, conscious, of 
himself as a thinking man. The four college years 
carry him forward very rapidly in his progress in 
this regard. The possibilities of mental discipline 
are very large. The result to be realized is of very 
great significance. The youth is to be made a 
thinking man. He is to be made, according to his 
years, a wide-thinking man, with his intellectual 
powers disciplined for the efforts awaiting them. 
He is to be fitted to turn the working of his powers 
easily and successfully whithersoever they may be 
called to turn. Mind-building is the college busi- 
ness, and the aim the college has in view is to send 
forth the young man at the end of his course, with 
his mind built, — not, indeed, in the sense that there 
will be no change or development afterward, in 
all the years which follow, but in the sense of com- 
plete readiness for the beginning of the educated 
life of manhood. The education of the college is 
the building process.” 

“There is no doubt,” said Dr. Francis L. Patton, 
“that college training prepares a man for the big 
things of life better than any home training or 
plain business experience, all other things being 
equal. It gives him a broader view and enables 
him to see the inter-relation of things, — to under- 
stand that nothing stands by itself.” 

The educated man knows better how to focus 
his ability than the uneducated man. He is trained 
to concentrate; his mind is disciplined by being held 
[ 466 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


strictly and persistently upon the problem in hand 
until it is solved. 

Some one has well said that the mental capacity 
of an earnest college graduate is like the power of 
steam or electricity, which is not applicable to run- 
ning some kind of engine merely, but to any me- 
chanical appliance. “The untrained man makes 
one think of Niagara going to waste, or only half 
utilized; or of a team of horses laboring through 
mud and mire when they might haul tons on a 
smooth road.” 

Every one admits that one’s mental power is 
favored by larger schooling. Whether or not the 
methods of higher education are peculiarly adapted 
to every individual case, they are being constantly 
adapted to the average man; and they will pay 
him well for the investment of the time and labor 
necessary to utilize them. 

“Perhaps the most valuable result of all educa- 
tion,” said Huxley, “is the ability to make yourself 
do the thing you have to do when it ought to be 
done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson 
which ought to be learned, and, however early a 
man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson 
he learns thoroughly.” Conformity to order, cour- 
age and decision of character, and the formation 
of habits of industry, regularity, punctuality, thor- 
oughness, persistency, patience, self-denial, intelli- 
gence in citizenship, and a wholesome self-respect 
are characteristic of mind-training for power. 

[ 467 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


Young people often ask, “Will it pay to go to 
college if one is going to be a merchant, a druggist, 
a farmer, etc.?” 

Here are some pertinent answers to that ques- 
tion: 

Harvey E. Fiske, the banker, in an article on 
“The Value of a College Education to a Business 
Man,” says: 

“If a boy intends to become something more 
than an under-clerk or a small tradesman, he will 
need the best preliminary education that his par- 
ents can afford to give him. 

“In the early stages of his career in business, a 
young man will not appreciate what he has missed 
by not going to college. Assuming that he entered 
an office or a store at seventeen, and that his friend 
entered college at the same age, he will feel at 
twenty-one greatly the superior of his friend in 
business ability. But five or ten years later, the 
one who had the college training will probably be 
found to be working more easily, with greater con- 
fidence, and with exactly as much success as the 
friend who had four years the start, — if not 
greater. A college education will strengthen all 
your faculties, and, rightly used, will be a blessing 
all through life.” 

Some time ago President Hadley, of Yale, said, 
“There is, at present, an unusual call for college- 
bred men in the various trades and professions, — 
a demand so great that we are hardly able to meet 
[ 468 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


it. This is a thing which always happens in years 
of commercial expansion. If we compare the times 
of prosperity with those of depression, we find that 
the variation in the value of invested capital is 
greater than the variation in the value of current 
product. A college-bred man has invested any- 
where from two thousand to ten thousand dollars 
in himself. The value of that investment follows 
nearly the same laws as the value of a steamboat or 
a furnace. When there is an exceptional demand 
for service, he is the one who feels its benefits most 
fully. When there is no special demand, and when 
everybody is striving simply to pay current ex- 
penses, he finds it impossible to make interest on 
the investment unless possessed of special qualifica- 
tions as a man. 

“I think the increase of college-bred men in 
business and politics will go hand in hand with an 
increase in the standard of public service and pub- 
lic life. I suspect that it should be regarded as a 
result of political improvement, rather than as its 
cause. The existence of new administrative prob- 
lems at home and abroad is likely to increase the 
need for men of broad views and thorough train- 
ing. This must have its effect on the education of 
our public officials in the next generation.” 

President Schurman, of Cornell, said: “It is true 
that there is an increasing and, just now, an un- 
usual demand for college-bred men in all walks of 
life. The prescribed preliminaries to legal and 
[ 469 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

medical education are, step by step, approaching 
graduation from college, and have reached it, in 
some instances, while these professional courses 
themselves have been extended and deepened, till 
they are now nearly or quite on a par with the old 
liberal training with which. they are co-ordinated 
in the modern university. As to engineers, — fif- 
teen years ago, the manufacturers of machinery 
had to be coaxed to take those pioneers, the Cornell 
men, into their shops, and give them a chance. But 
where one went, many followed. Last spring, 
when the class came to graduation, every student in 
this branch was eagerly bid for two or three times 
over. One great electrical firm alone asked to be 
given the entire class. There is observable, too, a 
gradual increase in the call for college-bred teach- 
ers in the public schools, and this demand will grow 
by what it feeds upon. 

“All this is but a sign and symbol of an increas- 
ing complexity and organization in our civilization. 
Rough-and-ready methods are going out, and the 
untrained handy-man with them. In all directions 
as expanding American commerce comes into com- 
petition with those of Europe, it is daily more 
obvious that the higher skill and intelligence, mak- 
ing the closest use of its resources, will win. Now- 
adays, to do the work of the world as the world 
will have it done, and will pay for having it done, 
requires that a man be trained to the exactitude of 
scientific methods, and that he be given the wide 

c 470 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


mental outlook and the special training which he 
can acquire in the university, and nowhere else.” 

When Mr. Richard T. Crane, the multi-million- 
aire elevator builder, of Chicago, set out a few 
years ago to prove that colleges and universities 
were a curse to the country, and had better be 
burned down, he only succeeded in proving, at least 
to the unprejudiced mind, the reverse. 

Among the statements in Mr. Crane’s book, 
made by different business men, that of Mr. Albert 
A. Sprague, president of The Sprague, Warner 
Company, a large wholesale house of Chicago, is 
significant. 

“I think,” said Mr. Sprague, “a college educa- 
tion is neither a drawback nor an advantage in a 
commercial life except in the greater resources it 
gives to a man. A man’s success depends more 
upon himself than upon his education.” 

In other words, all of the real education you 
obtain increases your resources, your capacity for 
service and enjoyment. Therefore, it makes little 
difference where or how you get your education, 
the more you have of it, the broader and better 
man you are likely to become. 

It is noticeable that the majority of the business 
men who expressed their views to Mr. Crane 
were in favor of a college education, even though, 
like Mr. Sprague, few of them gave any substantial 
facts to prove that a college education pays for a 
commercial career. 

1 471 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

While it is true that only a comparatively small 
percentage of the leading business men in the coun- 
try are college-bred men, it is very significant of 
the trend of our times that the percentage is stead- 
ily growing greater each year, indicating that more 
men are preparing themselves for a commercial 
career by a course in college. Likewise, it should 
be noted that the colleges are doing their part to 
meet this situation by introducing more and more 
practical, commercial subjects into their curriculum. 

Knowledge is one of the secret keys which unlock 
the hidden mysteries of a successful life. You 
should therefore get the best and most complete 
education that it is possible for you to obtain. 

Our civilization is becoming so complicated that 
a really dull, narrow, ignorant man stands a very 
poor chance compared with a broad, liberally edu- 
cated, many-sided man. There never was a time 
in the history of the world when a liberal education 
counted for so much. 

It does not matter what you intend to do in life, 
whether you are to be a shoemaker, a congressman, 
a business man or a farmer, the man that God 
folded up in you should be unfolded. 

Because a man chooses the profession of farm- 
ing, for example, should he be shut out from the 
riches of science, letters, and art? Is he not first 
of all a man and a citizen, and as such should not 
the largest possible culture be his? Must he talk 
only of cattle, plowing, and reaping? 

[ 472 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


Does it mean nothing to a farmer to uncover the 
mysteries of growth, to know the magical combina- 
tions of the chemistry of the soil, to be familiar 
with Nature’s methods of developing crops? Is it 
worth nothing to him to be able to see the glory in 
the grass, and to read the handwriting of the 
Creator in the rocks? Is it worth nothing to him 
to be able, like Agassiz, to interest himself for 
hours with a grain of sand, because it contains the 
very mysteries of God Himself, — to be able to read 
sermons in stones, books in running brooks, and 
God in everything ? Is it worth nothing to a farmer 
to be able to know the composition of the rainbow, 
the secret of the aesthetical works of God,' — to 
realize that the best part of the farm — the land- 
scape, — is not contained in the title deed? Is it 
worth nothing to him to be able to analyze the wild 
flowers in his meadows, to interpret the song of the 
lark and the habits of the nightingale? 

A liberal education, even for a farmer, often 
makes all the difference between the delights of 
Paradise and the monotony of drudgery. And is 
it not true, also, that a liberal education enables 
many a farmer to get a better living from a tenth 
part of the soil, and to get it much easier than can 
a man who is ignorant of its chemistry and its pos- 
sibilities? 

As a rule, too, it has been the boys who have 
been to college and gained a liberal education who 
have mixed brains with the soil, — who have 
[ 473 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

developed marvelous possibilities of agriculture by 
their knowledge of chemistry and botany, by their 
ability to study the effects of climatic conditions 
upon crops. It is the educated men who have 
brought fruits and vegetables and cereals to greater 
perfection by their superior knowledge, and lifted 
agriculture from mere drudgery to a profession. 

There is no honest calling so humble that it may 
not be raised a thousandfold by unfolding one’s 
natural faculties. For example, how much more 
a machinist sees in the piece of iron or steel he 
works upon than does a man who knows nothing 
of its chemistry, composition, or possibilities. His 
educated mind sees possibilities in the molecules 
of the bar; he knows of their motion, while the 
other man sees only a dead mass which, he thinks, 
would not interest anyone. The former under- 
stands the laws of force, attraction, repulsion, 
adhesion, and cohesion; the properties of the mole- 
cules in various metals are to him sources of 
entertainment and pleasure, while the other man 
understands nothing of the chemical ingredients or 
natural philosophy of the bar, and stares at it 
blankly, without interest. 

What is true of the farmer and the machinist is 
true of every man and every woman in every occu- 
pation and profession. 

Says Herbert Spencer: “To prepare us for com- 
plete living is the function which education has to 
discharge.” If a liberal education did nothing else 
[ 474 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


but to take the drudgery out of life, by helping us 
to see glory in toil, and only enabled us to be artists 
instead of artisans, — to attain superiority instead 
of having to be satisfied with mediocrity, to see 
the uncommon in the common, — it would pay us 
handsomely to secure it. 

If the college never did anything else but to 
show youth that there is something better in life 
than mere money-making and the pursuit of a 
sordid aim, — something better than the mad rush 
for the almighty dollar, — it would justify its ex- 
istence a thousand times over. 

Many a youth has entered college whose absorb- 
ing ambition was to amass a fortune; but, as his 
mental horizon has broadened, and his powers 
have expanded, he has felt a new aspiration 
develop within him, — a desire to make the most of 
himself, a longing to help humanity, to lift the 
burden from the oppressed; or else he has devel- 
oped a literary taste undreamed of before and 
longs to add something to the treasury of the 
mind. 

The history of the college as a turning-point in 
careers would, if truly written, read like a romance. 
Many a low, sordid aim has gradually given way 
to a nobler and loftier ambition, until the mere 
money-making pursuit, which seemed all-important 
at the time of entering college, is considered worth- 
less; and, instead of possible money-making mil- 
lionaires, many college graduates have become 

[ 475 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

millionaires of character, of helpfulness, of noble 
deeds. 

A college course, if faithfully pursued, helps a 
youth to realize his possibilities. It develops facul- 
ties which he never dreamed he possessed when he 
entered college, for the simple reason that his pre- 
vious training had not called these faculties into 
activity. 

Some of our greatest judges, brightest lawyers, 
best physicians, and most eminent writers started 
for college without the slightest idea of possessing 
any special ability in the lines in which they have 
since become famous. 

“Four years of college,” said President Faunce, 
of Brown University, “will treble the value of the 
forty years that may follow, treble the man’s en- 
joyment and his service to the state.” 

Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh says: “No sacrifice 
is too costly that will give the young man or 
woman of to-day a complete college training. The 
keenest regret of any life is that it did not receive 
thorough equipment for service. The keenest joy 
of any life is that it is adequately equipped to 
grow with the expanding conditions of its mature 
years.” 

Surely Dr. Brumbaugh is right, for an education 
not alone fits one for living getting, but for life and 
living. Merely because one does not intend to 
enter one of the learned professions is no reason 
why whole continents of possibilities, great wells 

[ 476 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


of potentialities, should remain in him undiscov- 
ered, undeveloped. 

What are the things we value most in life? Is 
the highest expression of a man’s existence the 
money or the mere material things hearings to the 
home; or is it the manhood, the broad, liberal 
culture, the fine sentiments, the magnanimity and 
tolerance that come from a broad, deep, intellectual 
training? 

Ah, to have one’s passion for expansion, for 
grqwth satisfied, to be drawn out of the rut of 
ignorance, and to be put into communion with the 
great minds of literature, art, and science of all 
times, to come into intimate contact with truth and 
nature, and feel the divine touch of science, to be 
able to quench one’s thirst at the fountain of per- 
petual youth, — this is to get a glimpse of the real 
joys of living ! 

Can any one conceive of greater possessions than 
an intellect well stored and disciplined, than a 
broad, deep, full-orbed soul? 

Is there anything else that will pay such grand 
dividends as self-investment in a liberal education, 
in culture, in manly and womanly growth? 

Is a man or a woman raised to the highest power 
by a liberal education of less value to a neighbor- 
hood than those who perform only the barest rou- 
tine of their vocations, and who regard living get- 
ting as drudgery? 

Is an education worth nothing to a girl who is to 

[ 477 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

spend her life in a small village or as a farmer’s 
wife? Is it worth nothing to her children and her 
home to bring to them the widest and the deepest 
possible training and culture? Can the personal 
value of father or mother be multiplied a thou- 
sandfold without its being of untold advantage to 
the home and the community? 

Do you think your children will appreciate the 
mere dollars you bring to them as much as your 
larger growth, your expanded mind, your comrade- 
ship with them in thought, reading, and conversa- 
tion? 

What adds wealth to a community? Not pala- 
tial houses or broad acres, but cultivated, helpful 
lives, educated men and women. Here is wealth, 
indeed, which makes mere money wealth ridicu- 
lous. 

Many a broadly cultivated man or woman who 
is not worth a thousand dollars makes a community 
infinitely richer and a place more desirable to live 
in than a dozen millionaires who only represent 
vulgar prosperity. 

Money is not the measure of the highest values. 
To the open, progressive mind, there can be no 
question of choice between money and education. 

A half-developed, ignorant human being is no 
more a man than discord is music. A person with 
only a fraction of his possibilities developed is only 
a fraction of a man. 

Development is the great law of creation. We 
[ 478 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


have no right to bury our talents. It is a duty 
written deep in our natures, — yea, inscribed on 
every fiber of our being, — to unfold them, to 
develop our faculties to the utmost, no matter what 
vocation we may follow. 

Nothing else will stand in such good stead, noth- 
ing else will aid so much in the great battle of life 
as to start on one’s career with a trained brain, 
a well-disciplined mind, a well-balanced soul, a 
well-equipped mentality. Then you are a power 
wherever you go. You do not have to show people 
your bank account or give them an inventory of 
your property. They see your wealth in your per- 
sonality. They see power in your character. They 
read the inventory of your real riches in your eye. 
They feel your power in your presence. You carry 
the evidence of victory in your very step and in 
your masterful bearing. You radiate force, con- 
viction, confidence, from every pore. This is to 
have a really practical education, a power which no 
bank account can give, which the possession of no 
amount of property can convey. 

This chapter would not be complete without 
touching on the two practical and very important 
questions — What college shall I select? and Can 
I work my way through college ? 

In regard to the first: the problem of choosing 
a college or a university out of the hundreds scat- 
tered all over the United States is not an easy one. 
Shall it be a city college or a country college, or a 
[ 479 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

college near a city? Great men have been gradu- 
ated from small colleges, and small men from 
great colleges. 

While this must be largely a matter of personal 
taste and preference, it is well to know some of the 
advantages and disadvantages of city and country 
colleges and universities. 

Country colleges are exempt from many of the 
temptations of city life, and are often more health- 
ful. There are advantages in coming into personal 
contact with, and under the personal influence of, 
professors and instructors in small country colleges 
which are unattainable in large colleges and uni- 
versities. The class acquaintances and social 
relations in smaller colleges are often pleasanter; 
friendships formed are more valuable, influential, 
and lasting. The dormitory system in country col- 
leges brings students together in closer and more 
friendly relations. 

On the other hand, city colleges and universities 
have many advantages over those in the country, 
especially for a boy brought up in the country. 
Their great corps of professors of national repu- 
tation, their traditions, reaching back, in some 
cases, hundreds of years, their broad culture and 
social advantages, furnish incentives and examples 
which are invaluable. 

As a rule, a student in a city college has a larger 
freedom in selecting a place of worship, and a 
wider range in his choice of recreations. The per- 
[ 48o ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


sonal liberty is less in smaller colleges. Of course, 
<‘his greater freedom brings greater responsibiity, 
which is sometimes dangerous for young students 
and those who have not learned to exercise self- 
control. On the other hand, the self-reliance and 
independence of character developed from the 
greater freedom, where students are thrown upon 
their own resources, is a great advantage. Again, 
this habit of class self-supervision which is engen- 
dered by being thrown upon one’s own resources is 
often of infinite advantage. Self-reliance and inde- 
pendence of character are developed much earlier 
in life than where students have less freedom and 
are under constant supervision. 

The opportunities for self-culture, for attending 
lectures and putting one’s self under the refining 
influences of a great city are to be carefully con- 
sidered. To have access to libraries, reading 
rooms, museums; to be brought face to face with 
beautiful works of art and architecture; to feel 
the influence from contact with the great achieve- 
ments of mankind, are things which have much 
to do in shaping the future life. Many of these 
advantages of a city can be enjoyed during one’s 
recreation, and are so much added to a college 
course. 

To counterbalance these good influences are the 
temptations and danger of falling into evil habits, 
which ruin so many students. For a student with a 
strong will power and comparatively well-devel- 

[ 481 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


oped character, however, the fulness of city life, 
the inspiration which comes from seeing and know- 
ing great men and women, are of inestimable value. 
Perhaps the greatest charms, however, of purely 
class and college fellowship are found in the 
smaller colleges. 

The second question: “Can I work my way 
through college?” can be answered more definitely 
than the first. I unhesitatingly answer, Yes, you 
can, not only because I did it myself, but because 
I have known hundreds of other college graduates 
who earned their entire expenses while going 
through college. 

A youth must, to be sure, possess pluck and 
determination, and must be prepared to endure 
some hardships and to forego some of the less 
important pleasures of college life, if he intends to 
work his way. Yet, there is no question but that 
any boy of average ability who has health and 
stamina can earn all of his expenses as he goes 
through college. 

If one sets out to earn his way through college, 
he will gain much if he can do most of his earning 
in vacation rather than in term time. The student 
who spends a large part of his time in working to 
pay his way loses a great deal of what is best in 
a college course. He does not have time for social 
gatherings, for debating clubs, for fraternity rhe- 
torical and mock trials. He loses the education 
which comes from the playground, that not only 
[ 482 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


develops the body, but also brings health, vigor, and 
freedom to the mind. There is no exercise in the 
world so good as the vigorous, outdoor recreations 
of students. There is an abandonment which calls 
out the best in one, makes him spontaneous and 
enthusiastic. The mind as well as the body is 
always on the alert for a quick retort, the happy 
reply, the joke, the bit of humor — all of these 
things are great powers in self-development. 

It should also be noted that the larger universi- 
ties naturally afford more opportunities for work- 
ing students. For instance, of the five thousand 
students connected with Harvard University, more 
than five hundred are almost or entirely dependent 
upon their own resources and they are in no sense a 
poverty-stricken lot. From $700 to $1,000 a year 
is by no means an exceptional earning for students 
who have a capacity for newspaper work or tutor- 
ing. There are some men of special abilities who 
make far more. 

Senator Albert J. Beveridge entered college with 
a capital no larger than $50.00, borrowed from 
a friend. He served as a steward of a college club, 
and added to his original fund of fifty dollars 
by taking the freshman essay prize of twenty-five 
dollars. When summer came, he returned to work 
in the harvest fields and broke the wheat-cutting 
records of the country. He carried his books with 
him morning, noon, and night, and studied per- 
sistently. When he returned to college he began 
[ 483 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

to be recognized as an exceptional man. He had 
shaped his course and worked to it. 

At least a thousand of the students in Columbia 
University each year earn either all or part of their 
expenses. Possibly Columbia has more self-sup- 
porting students than any other of the great uni- 
versities, o wing to its location in New York, 
where there are so many opportunities for employ- 
ment. 

David Starr Jordan, President of Stanford Uni- 
versity, paid his way at Cornell University by 
waiting on table, tutoring, taking care of lawns, 
and in all sorts of ways. He says a young man 
is not worth education who cannot work through 
college that way. 

Jacob Gould Schurman, of Cornell, is another 
college president who worked his way through 
college. 

A great many youths have paid their way 
through Boston University by doing all sorts of 
work, such as canvassing, working as brakemen on 
trains in summer, tutoring, teaching in night 
schools-, working in offices, and by keeping books 
in the evening for various firms, waiting on table 
in summer hotels, working on farms, etc. Many 
girls, also, have worked their way through the 
various departments with scarcely any assistance. 
When I was at the university, there was a poor col- 
ored boy working his way without assistance 
through the law school. So poor was he that he 
[ 484 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


could not afford a room, and he slept ion the 
benches in the law library. 

A representative American college president 
recently said: “I regard it as, on the whole, a dis- 
tinct advantage that a student should have to pay 
his way in part as a condition of obtaining a 
college education. It gives a reality and vigor to 
one’s work which is less likely to be obtained by 
those who are carried through colleges. I do not 
regard it, however, as desirable that one should 
have to work his way entirely, as the tax upon 
strength and time is likely to be such as to inter- 
fere with scholarship and to undermine health.” 

This last is a very important point, which needs 
to be emphasized. Health is your biggest asset in 
life. If you ruin that by skimping on food and 
necessary rest and recreation, not all the education 
or all the money in the world can compensate you 
for your loss. Common sense and ordinary intelli- 
gence should save one from any such folly. Health 
must always come first. Any sort of education 
worthy of the name means a sound mind in a sound 
body. 

The average boy of to-day who wishes to obtain 
a liberal education has a better chance by a hun- 
dredfold than had Daniel Webster or James A. 
Garfield. There is scarcely one in good health who 
reads these lines but can be assured that if he will 
he may. Here, as elsewhere, the will can usually 
make the way, and never before were there so 

[ 485 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


many avenues of resource open to the strong will, 
the inflexible purpose, as there are to-day, — at this 
hour and at this moment. 

Circumstances have rarely favored great men. A 
lowly beginning is no bar to a great career. The 
boy who works his way through college may have 
in some respects a hard time of it, but he will learn 
how to work his way in life, and will often take 
higher rank in school and in after life than his 
classmate who is the son of a millionaire. It is the 
son and daughter of the farmer, the mechanic, and 
the operative, the great average class of our coun- 
try, whose funds are small and whose opportunities 
compared with those of the sons and daughters of 
wealth are few, that the republic will most depend 
upon in the future for good citizenship and brains. 


C 486 ! 


BREVITY AND DIRECTNESS 


“Brevity is the soul of wit.” 

“Boil it down.” 

“Directness is characteristic of successful men.” 

T HE late General Kitchener, silent, stern, 
immovable, a hero of many hard-won bat- 
tles, was a sphinx-like type of concentrated 
power of directness. He formed his plans un- 
aided, and executed them with the precision and 
force of a huge engine. His chief of staff was the 
only one who knew anything of his intended move- 
ments when he started one day on an important 
expedition during the Boer war. He simply or- 
dered a locomotive, a guard van, and a carload of 
“Tommies.” Orders were given to clear the track. 
Everything had to stand aside for him. No warn- 
ing was allowed to be telegraphed ahead. He ar- 
rived on the spot without previous notice, and no 
general in the army knew when or where he might 
appear. Another incident of his South African 
campaign is strikingly characteristic of the man. 
About six o’clock, one morning, he paid an un- 
heralded visit to the Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape 
[ 487 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

Town, scanned the register, and found there the 
names of officers who should have been on duty. 
Without a word to any one, he went personally to 
the rooms of the offenders, and left the following 
notice: “A special train leaves for the front at 
10.00 A. M.; the troopship leaves at 4.00 P. M. 
for England; you have your choice, sir.” He 
would listen to no excuses, no parleying, no apolo- 
gizing; that was his ultimatum, and every officer 
knew what he meant. 

He wielded an absolute power over those under 
him, because of his positiveness, his self-possession, 
his consciousness of being equal to any emergency, 
whatever it might be. Everything about him was 
indicative of strength, largeness, and breadth of 
make-up. Free from petty vanity or any desire for 
praise or flattery, he had a frank contempt for all 
social distinctions and frivolities. His personality 
had all the impressiveness of some great natural 
force, working out its purpose, silently, effectively, 
and with the certainty of doom. 

Like that other forceful character, the late J. 
Pierpont Morgan, General Kitchener possessed in 
an eminent degree those qualities of self-confidence, 
decision, concentration, promptness, firmness, and 
ability to grasp situations which every one who 
would be successful must cultivate, the measure of 
one’s success being proportioned to the degree to 
which he develops these indispensable qualities. 

One of the greatest helps to success in any walk 

[ 488 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


in life is to learn to think concisely, to act promptly, 
and to express one’s self briefly. 

“Be brief,” Cyrus W. Field once advised a 
friend. “Time is very valuable. Punctuality, 
honesty and brevity are the watchwords of life. 
Never write a long letter. A business man has not 
time to read it. If you have anything to say, be 
brief. There is no business so important that it 
can’t be told on one sheet of paper. Years ago, 
when I was laying the Atlantic cable, I had occa- 
sion to send a very important letter to England. 
I knew it would have to be read by the Prime Min- 
ister and by the Queen. I wrote out what I had to 
say ; it covered several sheets of paper ; then I went 
over it twenty times, eliminating words here and 
there, making sentences briefer, until finally I got 
all I had to say on one sheet of paper. Then I 
mailed it. In due time I received the answer. It 
was a satisfactory one, too; but do you think I 
would have fared so well if my letter had covered 
half a dozen sheets? No, indeed. Brevity is a 
rare gift.” 

It is a good drill, in business correspondence, to 
imagine that you are writing a cablegram where 
every word costs twenty-five cents, and to try to 
express the greatest amount of thought in the 
fewest words. After you have written a letter or 
an essay as concisely as you think possible, go over 
it again and erase every superfluous word, recasting 
the sentences. By studying brevity of expression, 
[ 489 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY, OR 

one will soon overcome the slipshod habit of 
spreading over a page many sentences containing 
only a straggling, illogical thought. Such practise 
will also greatly improve the quality of one’s think- 
ing. Brevity should also be applied to conversa- 
tion, effort being made to see how few words can 
be made to express the greatest idea. 

The ever-living authors have expressed their 
thoughts in transparent language. They have 
stripped the expression of their ideas of verbiage, 
of all superfluity. They have chosen words which 
exactly fit the thought. They have left no traces 
of anything perishable which time can corrode or 
affect, and so they live always. What power will 
time ever have to erase a single sentence from Lin- 
coln’s immortal speech at Gettysburg, Longfellow’s 
“Psalm of Life,” or Shakespeare’s divine crea- 
tions? How many centuries and ages, think you, 
would obliterate Christ’s story of the lilies of the 
field, or the Sermon on the Mount, or Gray’s 
“Elegy”? 

There are thousands of books, dust-covered and 
unread on the library shelves, which would have 
been good sellers if one-half or three-fourths of the 
words were cut out, which could be done in many 
cases without the loss of thought. 

A. T. Stewart regarded his time as his capital. 
No one was admitted to his private office until he 
had stated his business to a sentinel at an outer 
door, and then to another near the office. If the 
[ 490 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


visitor pleaded private business, the sentinel would 
say, “Mr. Stewart has no private business.” When 
admittance was gained, one had to be brief. The 
business of Stewart’s establishment was dispatched 
with a system and promptitude which surprised 
rival merchants. There was no dawdling or dally- 
ing or fooling, but “business” was the watchword 
from morning until night. He refused to be drawn 
into friendly conversation during business hours. 
He had not a moment to waste. 

Many a youth has failed to get a situation be- 
cause he talked too much when making his applica- 
tion. Most business men have no time to waste, 
and they appreciate brevity. Brevity of expression 
always makes a favorable impression upon a good 
business man. 

When you have occasion to call on a man during 
business hours, stick closely to the matter under dis- 
cussion, and use as few words as possible, and get 
away as quickly as you can. Every moment of his 
working hours is valuable, and he has no time for 
useless conversation. 

If there is anything that exasperates a business 
man, it is to try to do business with men who never 
get anywhere, who never come to the point, who 
“beat about the bush” with long introductions and 
meaningless verbiage. Like a dog which turns 
around a half dozen times and then lies down 
where he was in the first place, they tire one out 
with useless explanations, introductions, and apol- 
[ 49i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

ogies, and talk about all sorts of things but the 
business of the moment. 

There are some men you never can bring to the 
point. They will wander all around it, over it and 
under it, always evading and avoiding, but never 
quite touching the marrow. Their minds work by 
indirection; their mental processes are not exact. 
They are like children in the play called “Poison,” 
— they try to avoid touching the designated object. 
It seems unaccountable that people will take so 
much trouble apparently to avoid coming to the 
point. 

When boys and young men ask my opinion about 
their ability to succeed in business, I try to find out 
whether they have this power of directness, of com- 
ing to the point clearly, squarely, and forcibly with- 
out indirection, without parleying, without useless 
words. If they lack this quality, apparently there 
is little chance of their succeeding in a large way, 
for this is characteristic of men of affairs who 
achieve great things. The indirect man is always 
working to disadvantage. He labors hard, but 
never gets anywhere. It is the direct man who 
strikes sledge-hammer blows, and the man who can 
penetrate the very marrow of a subject at every 
stroke, and get the meat out of a proposition, who 
does things. They know what they want, and are 
never on the fence. They do not waste their time 
shilly-shallying, seeking advice, balancing opinions, 
or splitting hairs. They decide upon a course of 
[ 492 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


action, and then pursue it without hesitation or 
wavering. 

How often we see some one rise in a meeting or 
public gathering and inform the audience that he 
“has just a word to say,” and then spend half an 
hour saying it! Brevity is one of the rarest attain- 
ments. It indicates a close, compact, and balanced 
mind. Very few people ever learn how to concen- 
trate their minds and condense their thoughts. 
They ramble along aimlessly in their talk, using, 
perhaps, ten times the words that are necessary to 
express their thought had they the power to con- 
dense their ideas into the fewest possible words. 

Directness is a cardinal virtue of the man who 
succeeds. He does not go over a thing, or around 
it, but to it and through it. If he calls to see you 
on business, he does not spend fifteen minutes in 
introducing his subject; he strikes directly to the 
heart of it; he does not waste your time on pre- 
liminaries or non-essentials, but proceeds to attend 
to the business in hand, and, as soon as he finishes, 
— stops. 

The quality of directness is characteristic of all 
men of great executive ability, because they value 
time too much to squander it in useless and mean- 
ingless conversation; it is an indispensable quality 
of the leader or manager of all large enterprises. 

Many a man has gone down to failure because 
he lacked ability to arrive quickly and effectively 
at a conclusion. While he was deliberating and 
[ 493 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


balancing and “beating about the bush,” the oppor- 
tunity to save himself passed and the crisis ruined 
him. 

Indirectness has ruined many a rising lawyer. 
The justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
States say that it is one of the most difficult things 
with which they have to contend. Young lawyers, 
too much impressed w T ith the importance of a su- 
preme court appearance, give long introductions, 
spin out oratory, explain self-evident points, and 
send forth copias verborum until they weary the 
court and hurt their own cases. It is not oratorical 
display, not verbiage, not well-rounded periods, but 
direct, clean-cut English, that judges want — facts, 
clearly, briefly, and decisively stated. 

It does not matter how much ability, education, 
influence, or cleverness you may have, if you lack 
the art of coming to the point quickly and •decisive- 
ly, of focusing yourself immediately, you can never 
be very successful. 

We know many young men who were graduated 
with honors from college, and who have always 
impressed us as youths of great possibilities and 
great promise; yet, somehow, they never focus, 
they never get anywhere ; they are always about to 
do something; they are usually just going to come 
to the point, but fall a little short of it. Men who 
are well bred, well educated, and superbly 
equipped, have often disappointed their relatives, 
their friends, and themselves, simply because they 
[ 494 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

lacked directness or the faculty of focusing their 
ability upon one point until they burned a hole 
in it. 

Indirect people flash all their powder in the pan, 
and never fire the charge or start the ball. 

In selecting a boy from a score of applicants, a 
shrewd employer will take the one who gets to his 
subject directly, states it concisely, with the fewest 
words, outlines his position briefly and stands or 
falls by it, and does not bore him by telling of the 
great things he has accomplished or of what he 
can do. 

Conciseness and clearness of expression are val- 
uable acquisitions and always create a good impres- 
sion. 

When a person is long on words and short on 
ideas, we know that he either lacks brain power or 
he has become a victim of prolixity; he has formed 
the vicious habit of chattering without thinking. 

This habit of loose-jointed, slovenly speech is 
largely due to the fact that children are not taught 
to think, but to jabber. Thought should precede 
the language, but the majority of people begin to 
talk before they think, and then they stammer and 
repeat themselves and jumble their conversation 
all up. 

Direct, wise, clean-cut language indicates a clear 
brain, a brain that has been trained to think. Slip- 
shod, loose-jointed, slovenly language indicates a 
lack of logical training. 

[ 495 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


At General Grant’s war councils, his generals 
would spend a great deal of time in discussing 
situations, the probabilities of the success or failure 
of the proposed move upon the enemy; but Gen- 
eral Grant would walk back and forth in his tent 
with his arms behind him, smoking his cigar, 
seldom opening his mouth or making a suggestion. 
He would simply smoke and think, and when the 
other generals were talking he would often draw a 
paper from his pocket and give it to them with 
these words : “Gentlemen, to-morrow morning you 
will proceed at daylight to carry out these orders.” 

An excess of any virtue may transform it into a 
vice. We all know that this condensing idea can 
be carried too far, to such a ridiculous extent that 
its very purpose is defeated. We can condense our 
schooling, our preparation for life and spoil our 
careers ; we can scimp on our work, hurry up on a 
task that requires the utmost carefulness and pre- 
cision, and ruin it; we can injure our health by bolt- 
ing our food, by not exercising properly, by not 
taking a vacation, because we must save time. In 
a thousand and one ways we can condense and 
hurry to our great injury, as we Americans in too 
many instances do, but the examples of condensa- 
tion and brevity in business cited illustrate the tend- 
ency of this efficiency age. This is an age of 
brevity and directness. Except in European diplo- 
macy people go directly to the point, without cir- 
cumlocution or ambiguity. All roundaboutness, all 
[ 496 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


indirection, all redundancy, all unnecessary verbi- 
age is being cut out of our literature just as all un- 
necessary motions, all unnecessary processes are be- 
ing cut out of business. Efficiency, at the smallest 
outlay of time and energy, is the general aim. All 
complicated methods are being reduced to their ut- 
most simplicity. The route to every goal wherever 
possible is being shortened. Railroads are expend- 
ing millions of dollars in shortening curves, tun- 
neling mountains, and under rivers in great cities 
In order to save a few minutes’ precious time. 

People will no longer tolerate the old-time 
round-about methods of traveling, of doing busi- 
ness. Brevity is the word everywhere. 


[ 497 1 


WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK 
OF YOU AND YOUR 
CAREER 


We stamp our own value upon ourselves and cannot ex- 
pect to pass for more. 

The very reputation of being strong-willed, plucky, inde- 
fatigable is of priceless value. It cows enemies and dispels 
opposition to our undertakings. 

W HEN some one asked General Lew Wal- 
lace what inspired him to write “Ben 
Hur,” his answer was, “The desire to 
stand well in the opinion of my contemporaries.” 

One of the governors of Minnesota said his 
ambition was “to make good in the town where I 
was born, and make good for myself and the 
folks.” 

Was there ever a grander ambition, a nobler 
motive, than the desire to carry weight in one’s own 
community, to stand well with the people in one’s 
own town or to have the esteem of the men and 
women of one’s own times? 

A gentleman inquiring of a lady about a strange 
man, asked if he had a local or a national reputa- 
tion. “National only,” she replied. 

A great many men stand well with people who 
[ 498 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


do not know them intimately. It takes a pretty 
good man to stand well in his own neighborhood, 
in the estimation of people who know him best. It 
is the local reputation that counts. It is compara- 
tively easy to get a good reputation with those who 
do not come in contact with us. If you can have 
only one kind of a reputation, take the local every 
time. 

Every business man knows how careful he must 
be to avoid any report affecting his credit; and yet 
these same men who are so careful and jealous of 
their financial standing may be very careless and in- 
different regarding anything which affects their 
moral reputation, their personal character. 

Most youths do not appreciate how much their 
future depends on what other people think of them. 
They do not realize that it may take many years to 
change a bad impression to a good one, even after 
the youth has completely changed his course of life 
for the better. The picture of the bad boy per- 
sists many years after the good one has taken his 
place. 

I have often heard young girls say they did not 
care what gossipers said about them as long as they 
were conscious themselves of not doing wrong. But 
how many a girl’s future has been blasted by care- 
lessness, indiscretion, by creating a wrong impres- 
sion regarding herself, which she could not live 
down ! How many a girl has thus lost the oppor- 
tunity to get a good home of her own ! 

[ 499 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


A little scandal, even though based on appear- 
ances only, has ruined the happiness of many an 
innocent person. No young girl can afford to be 
indifferent to what other people think of her. 

A young lady with whom I am acquainted is for- 
ever doing some imprudent thing, taking foolish 
chances with her reputation without meaning to, 
putting herself into a position to be criticized. The 
result is, with all her brilliancy and beauty, and her 
many admirable qualities, she does not have that 
high regard of those who know her that she really 
deserves. 

Many young people who are perfectly honest 
have a way of trifling, of doing all sorts of things 
which look bad, which give a wrong impression, 
and thus often innocently injure their reputation 
seriously. 

If there is any one thing a person should be care- 
ful about, doubly careful to protect, it is his good 
name. That is too precious to trifle with, for its 
integrity means everything to his future. He may 
lose his money and live, he may lose his position, 
his friends, and still recover, but if he loses his 
good name he can never entirely restore it. 

Young people often think there will be time 
enough to establish their reputation when they are 
older. But let me tell you that you will never have 
any more important business in life than establish- 
ing your reputation early for manliness or woman- 
liness, straightforwardness, for square dealing. 
[ 500 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

You cannot overestimate the value of a good repu- 
tation. It will mean everything to you. It may 
make all the difference between success and failure, 
between a grand career and an indifferent one, 
whether you early establish the reputation of being 
straight, square and clean, truthful and reliable, or 
of being unreliable, slippery, and dishonest, whether 
it can be said of you in the words of Shakespeare : 

“His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles; 

His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate; 

His tears, pure messages- sent from his heart; 

His heart as far from fraud as heaven from 
earth.” 

It is a great thing to be strongly intrenched, to 
be buttressed in the hearts and good-will of all who 
come in contact with us. It is a tremendous factor 
in our success; in fact, it is one of our greatest suc- 
cess assets. All credit is based on confidence. When 
confidence is weakened, credit is weakened. 

At a meeting of the Pujo Committee, the Con- 
gressional body that investigated the so-called 
money trust, Mr. J. P. Morgan was asked upon 
oath: 

“Is not commercial credit based primarily upon 
money or. property ?” 

“No, sir,” replied Mr. Morgan, “the first thing 
is character. ... I have known a man to 
come into my office and I have given him a check 
for a million dollars when I knew he had not a 
cent in the world.” 


[ 50i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

It makes a tremendous difference to you whether 
you have the reputation of always doing exactly as 
you agree, whether your word is your bond or you 
must be tied to it by cast-iron agreement. Busi- 
ness men do not like to deal with anybody who has 
to be watched. They are afraid of the slippery 
man, the dodger, the man who will try to get out 
of every agreement which works to his disadvan- 
tage. 

A bad reputation, people’s poor opinion of you 
will be like a millstone about your neck, always 
keeping you back. You will be obliged to expend a 
vast amount of energy in trying to overcome peo- 
ple’s adverse opinion. We are all tied together in 
one great whole so closely that, whether we realize 
it or not, what others think of us affects us very 
seriously. We are influenced by the character of 
the thought currents which come to us from a thou- 
sand sources. A great supporting, buttressing, 
stimulating power comes from the consciousness of 
being well thought of by all who know us. Our 
confidence is increased by the confidence and respect 
of others. 

Everything we achieve depends on our self-con- 
fidence, and that is strengthened, buttressed, weak- 
ened or undermined by the faith or lack of faith 
of others in us. 

If you are ambitious to make the most of your- 
self, carry yourself always with dignity and assume 
an attitude of power, not weakness. Do not all 
[ 502 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 

the time cut down other people’s estimate of you 
by saying foolish things, doing foolish things, 
making bad breaks. 

Have an ambition to force yourself up in public 
opinion, not down. Compel people to say every 
time they meet you that you are looking up, that 
you are gaining instead of losing, that you are more 
of a man than when they saw you last; stronger, 
manlier, more reliable. 

It is not a difficult thing to establish a good repu- 
tation, to add to people’s estimate of you day by 
day; but if you are constantly letting down the 
bars, lowering your average by foolish breaks, you 
will find it will require a great deal of extra ability 
to overcome the downward impression you are 
making. 

It takes only a few minutes to undo the work of 
years. One can slide down in an hour the distance 
it has taken years to climb up. It is a very easy 
thing to slide down hill, to float down the stream. 

Everywhere we see names traded on because 
they are immensely valuable, because a great name 
which has been the synonym of honesty and in- 
tegrity in a community for many years, stands for 
something, is worth something. 

How often, particularly in the West, we see this 

sign in a store: Mr. , formerly with Tiffany 

(or Altman, or Park & Tilford), of New York. 
The proprietors know the values of these names, 
and they know that the public will be likely 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


to have more confidence in them because of their 
former connection with these great and reliable 
houses. 

The reputation and the quality of the concern 
you work for will mean a great deal to your future, 
for reputation is contagious. If employees of some 
concerns in New York, for instance, selected for 
their integrity and the cleanness of their reputation, 
were to be mixed up promiscuously with employees 
of cheap, shoddy concerns, it would not be diffi- 
cult for a man of discernment to separate them, 
because the quality of the house, the ideals of the 
managers and proprietors are contagious. The 
t employees seem to catch the quality of the prin- 
ciples which govern the house. They are quick to 
take on the characteristics of their employers. 

There is something very subtle, very demoral- 
izing, in dealing with inferiority, with cheapness, 
in dealing with articles of merchandise which are 
adulterated, second-rate, half made. Somehow 
this contagious quality, which colors and tints the 
employees, usually follows them through life, so 
that the young men who go out of these cheap, in- 
ferior houses, and enter business for themselves, 
duplicate the ideals of their former employers. 

If there is anything which a man in a responsible 
position ought to prize, it is the esteem of the youth 
and young men who look up to him as their ideal, 
their hero. And he ought, above everything 
else, to be sure that the ideal he holds be- 
[ 504 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


fore him is worthy, that his reputation is irre- 
proachable. 

It goes without saying that no man can afford to 
sacrifice his independence for the sake of gaining 
the good opinion of others; but, if a man is normal, 
he can not be indifferent to what others think of 
him; he can not be denounced without pain, with- 
out a certain sense of regret, because it is perfectly 
natural that we should value the good opinion of 
our fellow-men. 

We all know how a mere trifle will sometimes 
seriously injure a man’s or a firm’s credit. Just a 
breath of suspicion that the firm is hard-pressed for 
money, and the creditors all rush with their bills — 
a breath of suspicion about the solvency of a bank- 
ing institution, and immediately there is a run on 
the bank. 

An important step in establishing a reputation is 
to ground yourself strongly in the good-will of 
others by making yourself agreeable. This will 
have everything to do with your credit and your 
standing in the community; while the young man 
who despises public opinion will soon find himself 
without credit and without the support of others’ 
good-will. 

No one can hide his true character. Wherever 
we go, we are on exhibition. We are holding our- 
selves up like a bulletin board for everybody to 
read, not as we would like to be, but as we are, for 
everybody to estimate and to judge. A thousand 

[ 505 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


eyes and a thousand judgments are scrutinizing us, 
weighing us, estimating us wherever we go. We 
can not get away from them. 

Willing or unwilling, we must step upon the 
scales of a thousand judgments to be weighed and 
estimated as they will. 

The criminal trembles and shrinks from the eyes 
of the crowd because he fears that there may be 
some one who may read the fearful thing in his 
mind and see the crime in the glance of his eye or 
in his manner. He can not cover up the secret en- 
tirely, for there are a thousand things in him trying 
all the time to tell the truth at every opportunity, 
and he can not hide or cover them all. He may 
teach the tongue to lie, but the eye and the manner, 
never. They are the truth-tellers, the proclaimers 
who do not hesitate to betray the murderer al- 
though it may cost him his life. 

There is somethingwithin us which tells the truth, 
regardless of consequences, and can never be 
trained to deceive or to lie. 

We are covered all over with the earmarks of 
our quality. The things we do voluntarily and 
habitually are prophetic of ourselves as a whole. 
Professor Agassiz could reconstruct an entire ani- 
mal which had lived millions of years before man 
came to the earth; he could tell where the animal 
lived, its habits, what it lived upon, from a single 
fossil bone. 

People can tell what kind of a man you are by 
[ 506 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


observing your little voluntary everyday acts. If 
you are selfish, if you exhibit pettiness, greed, and 
trickiness on a car, or on a train, or at the table, an 
observing stranger could reconstruct, build up, the 
sort of a man you are, from these acts; he would 
know to a certainty that you are not large, that you 
are not a big, broad, honest man. He would know 
that you are petty, small, and narrow, a man un- 
worthy of confidence. 

We do not need to eat a whole ox to test its 
quality. 

If you are small, mean, and picayune in little 
things you may be sure you will never be the great 
man or woman you would like people to consider 
you. 

Character is power, a mighty force. There is 
nothing in this world so convincing as character. 
Nothing that speaks with such masterly authority. 
The man who lacks it can not hope to win, or to 
retain among his fellow-men. a reputation worth 
having. 


f $07 1 


WHEN DISCOURAGED— 
WHAT TO DO 


There is something grand and inspiring in a young man 
who fails squarely after doing his level best and then enters 
the contest a second and third time with undaunted and re- 
doubled energy. 

P RENTICE MULFORD says: “There are 
no limits to the strength to be gained 
through the cultivation of our thought 
power. It can keep us from all pain, whether from 
grief, from loss of fortune, loss of friends, or dis- 
agreeable situations in life. The strong mind 
throws off the burdensome, worrying, fretting 
thought, forgets it, and interests itself in something 
else. A fearless man or woman can command any 
state of mind.” 

If we do not train ourselves to be always above 
the reach of vicious moods, despondent thoughts 
and feelings, there will be no certainty in our lives, 
no assurance of victory as to our future. We shall 
be mere driftwood, ever the victims of the strong- 
est tide of feeling. 

The great mass of people, however, seem to 
take it for granted that they were intended to be 
victims of their moods. They have no idea that 
[ 508 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


the antidotes, the remedies for every gloomy 
thought, for every adverse attitude of mind, are 
in their own possession. They plod on day after 
day, doing their work as if compelled by fate to 
wade through about so much dry, dreary drudgery. 
Their load is not lightened by the expectancy of 
better things. They have not enthusiasm enough 
to take the drudgery out of their work, so they 
drag on through the weary years, mere slaves of 
their occupation and their environment, when they 
have right within themselves that which would lift 
them above themselves, that which would lighten 
their burden, dispel the sense of drudgery and 
make them happy, willing artists in their voca- 
tions instead of unhappy, unwilling artisans. 

When we see men and women moving about 
in a “dead-and-alive” sort of way with slouchy, 
seedy dress, with dragging step, with nothing about 
their atmosphere that speaks of pride in them- 
selves, indifferent as to what others think of them, 
we know perfectly well that there is something 
wrong with their minds. They have allowed their 
moods of despondency, inertia, distrust, lack of 
confidence in themselves to master them. They 
have surrendered to the enemies of their success 
and happiness. They have become hopeless vic- 
tims of those distressing rudderless moods, in 
which they have no deep desire, no great ambition, 
no program of action, no direction of movement. 
They are drifting in the quagmire of failure, 
[ 509 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


because they never learned to conquer their moods. 

Some people have periodical attacks of the blues, 
which come on sometimes so suddenly that they 
seem almost overwhelmed with the gloomy 
despondent pictures which rush into their minds. In 
most instances these attacks are the result of har- 
boring more or less frequently a member of the 
blue, discouraged thought family. This estab- 
lishes a relationship with the whole vicious 
despondent current, which, as soon as the favor- 
able connection is made, rushes into the mind, 
flooding it with all sorts of black, discouraged 
images. 

I know a man who has suffered tortures from 
fits of the blues, which have become practically a 
form of chronic disease with him, just like epilep- 
tic fits. I have seen him in one of these blue spells 
when his countenance was so changed I scarcely 
recognized him. But when a cheerful, optimistic 
friend called and helped him to shut off the vicious 
thought current and make connections with the 
cheerful, hopeful, optimistic current, the blues 
would be gone almost as quickly as they came. 

This disease has something of cowardice in it. 
We are not willing to admit it, but what else is it 
but a sort of moral cowardice to give up, without 
a struggle, to a despondent mood? If any one else 
should dare call us weak, cowardly, and inefficient 
we would feel like knocking him down, and yet 
how often do we allow a mere mood to call us so, 

[ 5io 3 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


to make us so, without a protest! We give up to 
our feelings like children, assume a passive atti- 
tude, instead of a resisting, fighting one, until we 
are hopelessly in the clutches of the mental demon. 

There is nothing more fatal to efficiency, more 
insidiously demoralizing, nothing that has a more 
deteriorating influence upon character than indul- 
gence in blue, discouraged moods, in self-pity and 
self-distrust. Such weak indulgence if allowed to 
become habitual will unman the strongest, rob him 
of stamina, undermine the very foundations of his 
character. 

Suppose the commanding officers at West Point 
should allow the cadets to stay in their rooms 
when they did not feel like drilling or studying, 
and should allow them to loll around whenever the 
rules and regulations were too irksome for them, 
what sort of army officers would they make? The 
cadets are not only expected to answer to the roll 
call whether they feel like it or not, but they must 
pass inspection to the smallest detail. A button 
off a uniform, an unbuttoned coat, unpolished 
shoes, uncombed hair, slouching step or position, 
any lapse from the strict program is not excused. 
The cadet knows that he must keep himself right 
up to standard, and the very fact that he expects 
it of himself has everything to do with his feeling 
like it. 

The same thing is true in regard to our mental 
training. If we do not keep our moods and feel- 
[ 5ii ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


ings under strict discipline, they will take control 
and we will pay the penalty in botched and ineffec- 
tive lives. 

The next time you feel as though the bottom had 
dropped out of everything and you are right up 
against it, don’t make matters worse by allowing 
yourself to get down into the dumps, to spend 
nights worrying and fretting and days anticipating 
evils ahead. Don’t allow the traitor doubt, which 
has made such havoc in your past life, to push you 
deeper and deeper into the slough of despond. 
Positively refuse entrance or harbor in your mind 
to any of the enemies of your peace, your happi- 
ness, your efficiency, or your success. Brace your- 
self up by a self-encouragement treatment. 

This is the time when you need your mental 
friends, when you need to kill your mental enemies, 
— doubts and fears, anxieties and terrors, — with 
their antidotes. This is the time you need hope 
and courage and expectancy of good things to come 
to you. You don’t want any more blue devils, any 
more enemies of your welfare in your mind; you 
want your friends ; you want to neutralize all that 
is black, ugly, disheartening, and discouraging in 
your mental kingdom and in your environment. 
This is the time to make connection with all that is 
strong and uplifting, to put up your trolley pole, 
which you have allowed to drop, and tap the 
omnipotent current which will carry you above and 
beyond doubt, fear, and despondency. 

1 512 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


The most effective way to do this, to overcome 
the temptation to play the coward because of dis- 
couragement, is to get to some place where you can 
be alone and have a good heart-to-heart talk with 
yourself. Your pain, your despondency and anxiety 
come from your negative mind. You must change 
your mental attitude, make your mind positive, 
creative, instead of negative by repeated affirma- 
tion of your birthright, your heritage of divine 
power and happiness. 

Say to yourself: “I am God’s child, and my 
Father never created me to be a miserable, down- 
hearted, discouraged creature. He made me to 
look up, to be courageous, cheerful, happy. I 
claim my birthright now. I am one with my 
Father; master of myself, my thoughts and moods; 
I am success. I believe in all good. Nothing can 
harm me so long as I keep my connection with my 
Creator : That I am resolved to do. I am one with 
Him now and forever. I am joy and gladness. 
Gloom and despondency cannot enter my mind 
while the Father abides in me and I in Him. And 
never again shall I harbor the enemies of my 
health and happiness. Never again shall I lose 
my connection with the Maker of all good, the 
Creator of all things.” 

Talk to yourself in the same dead-in-earnest 
way that you would to your own child or to a dear 
friend who was deep in the mire of despondency, 
suffering tortures from .melancholy. Drive out 
[ 513 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

the black, hideous pictures which haunt your mind. 
Sweep away all depressing thoughts, suggestions, 
all the rubbish that is troubling you. Let go every- 
thing that is unpleasant, all the mistakes, all the 
disagreeable past; just rise up in arms against the 
enemies of your peace and happiness, summon all 
the force you can muster and drive them out. 
Negative, discordant thoughts cannot exist in the 
presence of their opposites. After even one good 
heart-to-heart talk with yourself you will be 
ashamed to be such a coward as to give way to the 
blues, to think of turning back from your resolu- 
tion, or lying down and giving up hope, in obedi- 
ence to a mood. 

Many people drive away the blues by reading 
something funny or something encouraging, inspi- 
rational. I know some who get very quick relief in 
reading the Psalms or the Saviour’s sayings. 
There is a wonderful uplift, encouragement, a 
healing balm in these inspired writings. They are 
strong, positive, constructive, while the thought 
enemies are all negative, all minus, and the posi- 
tive, the plus will always drive them out. The one 
is light, the other darkness, and the light is always 
more than a match for the darkness. Darkness 
is not a reality, not an entity; it is merely an 
absence of light. Discord and gloom are not reali- 
ties; they are but the absence of harmony. Har- 
mony is the reality, the entity, the creative force. 
And If we will only learn to substitute in the mind 
[ 514 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


just the opposite of the thing that is troubling us, 
discouraging or keeping us down, we shall quickly 
rally from depression ; we shall make the harmoni- 
ous, creative condition permanent. 

Morbidness, a tendency to the blues, will keep 
you back, because it not only repels people, but it 
destroys your confidence in yourself, and the con- 
fidence of others in you. Other things equal, people 
like and believe in us in proportion to our helpful- 
ness. A morbid mind usually means a warped, 
twisted judgment, and every one knows that to a 
certain extent that destroys ability. It also creates a 
depressing, gloomy atmosphere, and no one wants 
to be in such an atmosphere. We all avoid morose, 
gloomy people just as we avoid a hideous picture 
which makes a disagreeable impression upon us. 
We instinctively turn to the beautiful, the harmoni- 
ous, sunny-souled men and women, who smile in 
the face of danger, and, no matter what happens 
keep marching forward. 

We often hear victims of the blues say that they 
are naturally of a melancholy disposition, and that 
they can not get rid of the tendency to mental 
depression. They have inherited it, therefore there 
is no use struggling against it. One might as rea- 
sonably say he had inherited a tendency to murder, 
to steal, or to lie, and therefore it was useless to 
struggle against it. An infinitely beneficent and lov- 
ing Creator never left His children at the mercy 
of any tendency, inherited quality or mood that 
[ 515 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


would drag them down. Giving ourselves up to 
any disagreeable trait on the plea that we have 
inherited it is sheer weakness. We can conquer 
it if we will. 

The man who has to consult his feelings or his 
moods as to whether he will be able to do this or 
that at any particular time, shows that he is not 
a born leader, that he is not built to lead men. 

No one accomplishes anything worth while in 
this world until he becomes master of himself, until 
he can dominate his unfortunate feelings. “He is 
a victim of his moods” could be said of thousands 
of failures, people who have never learned to con- 
trol their minds and moods, who go up and down 
with their feelings, just as the mercury in the ther- 
mometer moves with the temperature. 

Employers are always afraid of people with 
morbid minds. They are afraid of personal pecu- 
liarities that indicate departure from the normal, a 
lack of balance, weakness. 

Some of the ablest young men and women I 
know have been fearfully handicapped in their 
efforts to get on because they have developed mor- 
bid tendencies. 

If you are the victim of moods, if you are in- 
clined to be morbid or have gloomy tendencies and 
really want to correct them, don’t separate yourself 
from the rest of the family, or from the outside 
world. Whatever you do, do not become a stay-at- 
home, a recluse. Be just the opposite. Push your- 

1 516 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


self right into the swim of things and try to take 
an active part, to have a real interest in what is 
going on around you. Associate with people as 
freely as possible. Just try to be glad and happy, 
and interest yourself in others. Keep your mind 
off yourself. Do not take a book and get into a 
corner alone, or go to your room and shut yourself 
in with your gloomy thoughts. Get away from 
yourself by entering with zest into the family plans 
or the plans and pleasures of those about you. 

Do not dwell on your disappointments, your 
unfortunate surroundings, or harbor black pictures 
in your mind. This only aggravates your troubles. 
Do not brood over what you call your peculiarities. 
Hold to the belief that the Creator made you in 
His own image, a perfectly normal, healthy, happy 
and sensible human being, and that any other con- 
dition is the result of your abnormal thinking. 

The very next time you get discouraged or think 
that you are a failure, that your work does not 
amount to much — turn about face. Resolve that 
you will go no further in that direction. Stop and 
face the other way, and go the other way. Every 
time you think you are a failure it helps you to 
become one, for your thought is your life pattern, 
and you can not get away from your ideals, the 
standard which you hold for yourself. If you 
acknowledge in your thought that you are a fail- 
ure, that you can’t do anything worth while, that 
luck is against you, that you don’t have the same 
[ 517 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

opportunity that other people have, your convic- 
tions will control the result. 

When we give expression either in thought or 
word to the enemies of our achievement and happi- 
ness; when we talk about our troubles, trials, or 
misfortunes, tell and re-tell them over and over 
again to others; when we constantly describe and 
picture them in our thought, and dwell on them 
to the exclusion of everything else, we are making 
more and more real the things we want to drive 
out of our lives. We are etching these hideous 
images deeper and deeper on our minds, making it 
more and more difficult to erase them. 

There is only one thing to do with the enemies 
of our happiness and our success, and that is to 
strangle them, neutralize them with their natural 
antidotes. There is only one thing to do with 
disagreeable, discouraging, despondent thoughts, 
and that is to get rid of them, to erase them as 
quickly as possible by holding their opposites in the 
mind. 

If you try to find or to analyze the causes of your 
melancholy instead of fighting it, you will throw 
your mental doors wide open to the whole blue 
family. It is thinking of yourself, brooding over 
your troubles, dwelling upon the things that make 
you unhappy, that feeds despondency. The blues 
thrive on this kind of fare. 

On the other hand, if you take a positive, deter- 
mined stand against them, resolutely closing the 
[ 5i8 } 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


doors of your mind against them, you will over- 
come all the legions of the blue devils. They will 
give right up instead of fighting. 

What tortures many people suffer from melan- 
cholia, low spirits, mental depression, despondency, 
just because they do not apply the remedies which 
would easily kill their deadly poisons ! The faces 
of these victims of mental depression look as 
though the real man or woman had moved out, had 
descended from the throne of his will and allowed 
its enemies to reign. 

If we realized what havoc a fit of the blues plays 
in our delicate brain and nerve tissues, we would 
make a most strenuous effort to strangle it at the 
very outset. There is nothing whatever to prevent 
our doing this. If we live perfectly normal lives, 
if we hold the right attitude of mind, there is no 
more necessity of any one being blue or discour- 
aged, of going about with a gloomy, pessimistic 
face, than there is of committing a crime. 

I do not believe there is a person in the world 
who can not in a few months overcome the worst 
mood or thought habits if he sets about it scien- 
tifically. When you resolve that you are not going 
to give up to a set of whims, that you are not going 
to be a slave to any enemy mood, when you come 
to the understanding with yourself that you are 
going to run your own affairs, and not be dictated 
to by the enemies of your success, everything phy- 
sical and mental will fall into line with your aim. 
[ 519 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


When you get up in the morning, and every- 
thing looks blue, and when you do not feel like 
doing anything, when life doesn’t seem worth 
while, then is your opportunity to have it out with 
your enemy. Fight it out on the spot. Say to 
yourself; “No matter how I feel, I am going to 
look on the bright side of things. I shall not let 
gloomy thoughts rule me to-day. I shall show 
these little mental enemies of mine that I am going 
to run my own mental workshop. The king is 
going to rule to-day and every day hereafter.” 
Brace yourself at the start, and whenever you feel 
the inclination to gloom throughout the day, by fol- 
lowing the prescription of a well-known physician 
for depressed, nervous patients — “Keep the cor- 
ners of your mouth turned up.” 

“Just try turning up the corners of your mouth, 
regardless of your mood, and see how it makes 
you feel; then draw them down, and note the 
effect, and you will be willing to declare, ‘There is 
something in it,’ ” says this physician. He has 
his patients remain in his office and smile. If it is 
not the genuine article, it must at least be an 
upward curvature of the corners of the mouth, and 
the better feelings invariably follow. 

He says that if people will turn down the cor- 
ners of their mouths and use sufficient will power 
they can actually shed tears. On the other hand, if 
they will keep the corners of their mouths turned 
up, pleasant thoughts will take the place of gloomy 
[ 5^o ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ones. His remedy for the blues is the fruit of 
experience in his own home. His wife was of a 
morbid temperament, and when she was despond- 
ent, he would ask her to smile a little, until the say- 
ing came to be a household joke; but it brought 
good results. 

I know a man who had long been a victim of 
despondency who cured himself by adopting the 
smile remedy. He said to himself, “I have been 
miserable long enough. I have been handicapped 
all my life by this miserable habit of the blues, 
and now I am going to quit. I’ll keep the corners 
of my mouth turned up, and I’ll grin, no matter 
how I feel.” This resolution proved his salva- 
tion. He persisted in smiling until he actually 
changed his mental attitude and became quite 
happy and cheerful. His changed outlook reacted 
favorably upon his business, which improved won- 
derfully, together with his health. 

A woman who has had great affliction says: “I 
have had nothing I could give but myself, and so 
I made the resolution that I would never sadden 
any one with my troubles. I have laughed and told 
jokes when I could have wept. I have smiled in 
the face of every misfortune. I have tried to let 
every one go away from my presence with a happy 
word and a bright thought to carry with them. 
Happiness makes happiness, and I myself am hap- 
pier than I would have been had I sat down and 
bemoaned my fate.” 


[ 521 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY 


John Wanamaker’s advice to men at the begin- 
ning of a new year was, “Don’t be blue. If I only 
thought of my mistakes I should be miserable all 
the time.” 

Many a once prosperous man has gone down in 
financial ruin because he dwelt so much on his mis- 
takes and gave way to discouragement and the 
blues. 

If you start out in the morning with the deter- 
mination to allow nothing to throw you off your 
balance, to annoy you, to interfere with your effi- 
ciency, and if you do your utmost to keep that 
resolution, you certainly are not half as likely to fall 
and go to pieces over little things, or to become 
morbid and gloomy as you are if you make no 
resolution. In other words, it is a wonderful help 
to start out in the morning with the firm deter- 
mination to win out in spite of all the enemy 
moods, all the accidents and vexations that may 
bombard us, to make the day efficient and success- 
ful. 

There is no other way to make life yield its best 
than to make each day a success. 


[ 522 ]' 


THINK OF YOURSELF AS YOU 
LONG TO BE 


We feel the thing we ought to be beating beneath the thing 
we are — Phillips Brooks. 

D O you realize that every time you allow 
yourself to think you are a failure, a 
nobody, your mental attitude kills the very 
thing which you are pursuing, that you are really 
“queering” your success by your self-thought 
poisoning? 

Men who have risen to high places have usually 
pictured themselves in these positions long before 
they attained them. 

The mind always goes ahead of the plan and the 
plan always precedes the building, the achievement. 
If the plan is stunted the life structure will cor- 
respond. When you carry a poorhouse atmosphere 
with you, you are attracting the poorhouse, the 
poorhouse conditions. Holding the poverty 
thought keeps you in touch with poverty-stricken 
conditions. 

If you expect to win out in life you must carry 
conquest in your very presence. Your attitude must 
be victorious. 


[ 523 1 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

Do not think of yourself as a Human being 
dwarfed in any faculties or in any respect. Just 
imagine yourself as filling out the ideal of man- 
hood or the ideal of womanhood, because we tend 
to measure up to our estimate of ourselves, to our 
ideal. 

Whatever your mental attitude is you build into 
your life. As long as you think you are a nobody, 
there is no power in the world that can make you 
a somebody. Nothing will save you from your 
own condemnation of yourself, your own convic- 
tion of your inferiority, your unworthiness. 

Always think the best of yourself. Carry a 
wholesome, whole, ideal picture of your health, of 
your ability, your success, your happiness. Never 
allow a dwarfed, imperfect picture to come into 
your mind. 

How few of us realize that we head towards our 
ideals, our convictions, our dominant thought, that 
our lives pattern after the models we carry in the 
mind! What we visualize regarding ourselves, 
our future, become building points in our mind, 
and we are constantly creating about these models, 
following them out, perfecting and beautifying 
them with our hopes, our expectations of better 
things, or marring them with our fears, our doubts. 

A great artist said he never looked at inferior 
pictures because if he did he would thus become 
too familiar with false artistic ideals and his own 
pencil would soon catch the taint of inferiorty. 

[ 524 3 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


So the constant familiarity with inferiority, with 
low-flying ideals, with sloppy, slovenly ways of 
doing things, will naturally lower even the highest 
ideals. Before we realize it we are in the clutch 
of a habit formed by these multiplied repetitions 
and can not free ourselves. Our ideals are shat- 
tered. 

If our thought or motive is a selfish, greedy, 
grasping one, this model is being repeated, repro- 
duced in our life, and will speak from our whole 
nature. If we are holding hatred and jealousy 
thoughts we are making a magnet of our mind to 
attract more hatred, more jealousy thoughts, we 
are making a magnet of our minds to attract more 
hatred. This creates a hatred and jealousy model 
which is being incorporated into our life and which 
will increase our capacity for hatred and revenge. 
The gloomy, discouraged, sick thought model will 
quickly be woven into the life web, as will the 
failure model, the doubt model, the discouraged 
model. Whatever conditions we impress on the 
mind will be transmitted to the physical condition. 

Hindu fakirs concentrate the devils they be- 
lieve occupy their bodies into a certain member, an 
arm or a leg, by sheer will power. Soon the limb 
becomes withered and useless. 

How much better if they directed this mag- 
nificent will power to drive “the devils” entirely 
out of their bodies, proclaim wholeness and per- 
fection ! 


[ 5 2 5i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

It is a great thing to train the mind to dwell 
much in the ideal, to contemplate the perfect, the 
excellent, the whole, to supply it with models which 
we would like to have reproduced in our lives. 

If people only realized what a potent, creative 
force there is in vigorously visualizing their de- 
sires, there would be fewer failures in the world. 

We should fill the whole mental field with thought 
images of abundance, of supply, of everything that 
is good for us; with glorious pictures of health, 
prosperity, comfort, and, happiness. The reason 
why our lives are so starved, pinched, narrow, is 
because of the meagerness, the stinginess, the in- 
efficiency and unhappiness of our mental images. 

If you wish to increase your power never picture 
your weaknesses to yourself, never associate in- 
feriority, low-flying ideals with yourself; always 
think of yourself as masterful, as able to do things 
in a strong and vigorous, masterful manner. In 
other words, hold the picture of yourself as you 
would like to be, as you were intended to be, pro- 
vided you could have filled out the design of your- 
self to its fullest, completest perfection. 

Our degree of faith limits our achievement. I 
have often heard religious people express surprise 
that the Bible enjoins us to be perfect even as our 
Father in Heaven is perfect. But you can be per- 
fect in your idealizing, holding the ideal of your- 
self as the man God meant you to be, not as sin 
and mistakes have dwarfed you. 

[ 5^6 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


The biblical injunction means to be perfect in 
your life plan, perfect in your ideals; but if you 
deliberately hold defective Ideals, visualize de- 
fective life plans these will be the models which 
you will work into your life. 

If you are in a small business, in a little picayune 
position, and you are capable of doing something 
bigger, you are probably limiting yourself by your 
narrow, pinched thought of yourself; you are not 
giving yourself a fair chance for something larger. 

If you wish to open the door to something 
larger, something more congenial, the first thing to 
do is to picture yourself in the larger position 
which you long to be in, to visualize a larger ambi- 
tion. 

Every condition in life can be traced back to the 
character of the mental concept. This is the pat- 
tern for -the life building. If the concept is right 
the life can not go wrong. 

Form a habit of picturing yourself in the posi- 
tion you long to fill, in the environment which you 
yearn for. If you picture yourself as filling a pig- 
my’s position you are not likely to get into a giant’s 
place. 

Many of those who are ambitious to succeed 
hold mudh of the time the failure model, the medi- 
ocre mental attitude, and the achievement can not 
rise higher than the mental attitude. 

One reason why the lives of many of us are so 
starved, lean, pinched, and our achievement so 

c 527 3 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

small, is because we think too meanly of our ability 
and our possibilities, we set too narrow limits to 
our accomplishments. 

The habit of forming a defective, dwarfed pic- 
ture of yourself will very seriously cripple your 
self-confidence; and self-confidence, a vigorous be- 
lief in one’s self, is a tremendous asset, a vital force 
in our life shaping. 

If circumstances have forced you into an un- 
happy environment where your powers do not pull 
to their utmost, and if you have a taste for some- 
thing better, if you cling to your vision, struggle 
upward toward the light and are honest and sin- 
cere, you will find an opening. Aspire, look up, 
struggle up, that is the main thing. 

It is not so much a question of how far you 
have traveled as which way you face. It is facing 
life the right way, with .the right spirit, that will 
push you forward. 

Men can read your philosophy, your life stand- 
ards in your face, your manner, your conversation. 
In these they can read your morals, your ideals. 
Your ideals of purity or the reverse are there re- 
flected so that people can read them at a glance. 
We are all of a piece, and our natural expres- 
sion will indicate what is going on inside of us. 
The way to kill the unfortunate tendencies in our 
nature is to cut off their nourishment, to cease to 
feed and encourage them. 

Our civilization would be revolutionized if all 
[ 528 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


mothers could instil this doctrine of ideal visual- 
izing, of high ideal habits into their children. We 
need have little anxiety about a youth who habitu- 
ally holds lofty ideals of himself regarding his 
future, regarding his conduct, his scholarship, his 
work, his standing in the community. A lofty 
pride in his work and holding noble ideals will be 
a splendid insurance against the multitude of temp- 
tations which will beset his path. It will protect 
him against vicious associates, will keep him from 
stooping to low, evil practices. If we only knew 
the alchemy of right thinking we should soon be- 
come the gods we were intended to be. 

No matter what your defect, deficiency, or de- 
formity, persist in holding the image of your per- 
fect self. Think of yourself as your Creator 
planned you. Hold the ideal of human perfection 
which He held. Think of yourself as perfect, as 
strong, vigorous, manly. Think of yourself as a 
lucky being, born under a lucky star. Persist in 
holding the thought of yourself as successful, no 
matter how the facts may seem to contradict this. 
Live much in the ideal of yourself. 

Saturate yourself with the ideals, with the con- 
victions which you long to come true. Keep your 
mind filled with them and they must by the very 
law of attraction force out their opposites, for like 
attracts like. If you hold the love thought in your 
mind the hate thought must go. Love and hate 
can not live together. Light and darkness can not 

[ 529 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 

live together. A fit of the blues can not dwell in 
your mind if you persist in holding the opposite 
thought, the cheerful, hopeful, optimistic, encour- 
aging, expectancy of-good-things-thought in your 
mind. The blue devils clear out when their anti- 
dotes enter the mind. 

Visualize the model man, and you will be sur- 
prised to see how soon you will begin to measure 
up to your ideal, to your model. 

The trouble with us is the mean, contemptible 
model we hold of ourselves. 

You must see yourself above a clerkship or you 
will never be anything higher than a clerk. You 
must visualize yourself in a better position, and 
hold constantly a grim determination to reach 
it or you will never get there. Never for a moment 
harbor a doubt, because when you do you are neu- 
tralizing just so much of the force which would 
take you there. Things of a kind pull together, 
and if you assemble a lot of negative thoughts, 
doubts and fears and cowardice, you are creating a 
countercurrent which is taking you right away from 
the thing you desire. 

You must dare to think of yourself as a leader, 
dare to visualize yourself in a larger place with 
larger success, with larger influence. Keep visual- 
izing yourself in a better and better position, ever 
higher up and farther on, and never be afraid to 
fling out your vision. But remember you must back 
up your vision with a grim determination and a 

[ 530 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


resolution and that perpetual effort which knows 
no retreat or defeat. 

Probably every one, as the years pass, experiences 
a deterioration in the ideal, which becomes more 
pronounced after reaching manhood or woman- 
hood and coming in contact with the realities of 
life. When we stand on the threshold of an ac- 
tive career, we are ambitious, responsive, ex- 
pectant of all sorts of good things to come to us. 
The possibilities of life seem inexhaustible. We 
not only expect to get on, but we are ambitious to 
get up, to make a name for ourselves, to stand for 
something in the world. 

As yet the ideal is fresh and vigorous and it does 
not seem possible to us that we can ever take a low 
or sordid view of things, that we can ever give up 
and settle down to be nobodies. Our visions are 
bright, the theories of the schools and universities 
are still fresh in our minds, and we can hardly 
imagine any lowering of standards, any deteriora- 
tion of ideals. But as we come in contact with the 
real, with the hard facts of practical life, — as 
we become weary with the dry, dreary drudgery 
of routine — as we get to making money — many of 
us are surprised to find that there is a gradual dull- 
ing of the ideal, a letting down of standards all 
along the line. At first it is an unconscious drop- 
ping, but as time goes on we realize the change 
and finally admit it. 

It takes a strong, persistent effort to keep the 
[ 53i ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


ideal clear, the ambition from sagging. We have 
a hard time keeping its outline clearly defined, for 
the mind tends to grow material. If we allow 
ourselves to become self-centered there will be a 
gradual letting down of standards, and the ideal 
grows dimmer and dimmer as we become more 
and more enamored with the material. 

There is nothing that will give you greater satis- 
faction in life than the habit of holding lofty ideals 
regarding everything in life, a high ideal of your 
ambition, of your aspiration, a high ideal of the 
quality of your endeavor, high ideals regarding 
your character, your reputation, your standing 
among men. 

There is a wonderful uplifting, enlarging influ- 
ence in holding lofty ideals of what we are trying 
to become and of all the things we are trying to do 
in life. 

If we hold a high ideal of our possible efficiency 
we are much more likely to strive to attain that 
efficiency than we would be if we did not think much 
about the ideal, but simply worked on, however 
conscientiously. 

It is the ideal that raises the quality of the effort. 
The holding of the vision keeps the ambition from 
sagging and the arm from tiring. 

If you have a lofty sentiment and a high ideal, if 
you are struggling up as well as on, you will ulti- 
mately win. Your goal always lies in the direction 
of your strongest desire and your greatest effort. 

[ 532 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


If you arc dead-in-earnest, doing your level best to 
match your vision with reality, you may be sure 
that somewhere, sometime the way will open, how- 
ever dark it may seem to you. 

Opportunities will come to the determined, aspir- 
ing soul who has that courage, grit, and persistency 
which never gives up, but they will never come to 
the weak, discouraged, or faint-hearted man or 
woman without high ideals. 

There is perhaps nothing else which makes of 
life a drudgery and curses existence so much as low- 
flying ideals. Unless a man aspires, unless he looks 
up and strives up, he can never rise above the com- 
monplace. There must be an upward look, an 
upward tendency in his life, a struggling towards 
the light. There must be a feeling of expansion 
in the mentality, not only a pushing ahead, but 
pushing upward as well, or the career will be a 
disappointment. This soaring tendency is the 
leaven which saves the life from deterioration, 
which prevents it from becoming stale and common. 
Without this upreach tendency there will be no 
enthusiasm, no zest; life will be flat and insipid. 

“Fly high” is the general order to the aviators 
of the Allies in the European war. The “birdmen” 
are instructed to keep their aeroplanes at a great 
elevation when reconnoitering over the enemy’s 
lines ; up beyond the danger zone, away from rifle 
balls and shrapnel and from the enemy aircraft 
guns. 


[ 533 ] 


HEADING FOR VICTORY , OR 


“Fly high” applies to us also. It warns us to 
keep rising, soaring, aloft near our ideals, striving 
to keep them always in plain sight, for from too 
great a distance they become blurred. 

Dwelling much in the soul of things, living in the 
ideal, tends to sharpen the faculties, to refine the 
life. If we neglect this and live wholly on a mate- 
rial plane our lives will become encoarsened and 
sordid. Our affections, all that is finest and most 
delicate and exquisite in our nature are closely 
allied with sentiment, with the ideal, and when we 
live wholly on the material plane our natures tend 
to become marbelized, hard, unsympathetic and 
unresponsive. People who live much in the ideal 
are fresher, more youthful, more sympathetic; their 
natures are more plastic to all that is beautiful and 
good and true. 

“Ideals lift us from the curse of commonness.” 

Never before in history has there been a greater 
revolution in the world’s ideals than is taking 
place right now, and never before did America have 
such an opportunity to influence the world’s ideals 
as it has to-day. 

Christ said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all 
men to me.” The great thing is to lift up our 
ideals. 

Fortunate is the man who has a passion for 
goodness, a natural longing for what is worth 
while, a desire to reach up and out. There is 
[ 534 ] 


GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE 


ever hope for the man with an upreaching ambi- 
tion, the man who lives much in the ideal. 

Never allow yourself to dwell on your weak- 
nesses, your failures, your unhappy condition. 
Hold firmly the ideal of your efficiency, your com- 
petency, your divinity, the conviction that you were 
made for health, success, and happiness, and strug- 
gle vigorously to attain that which will help you to 
realize this condition. 

As long as we fight against the divine pattern 
set within us we shall be inefficient, unhappy. 

Think big and you will be big, that is, you will 
be larger than if you think otherwise. Think your- 
self small and contemptible, and you will be small 
and will not even respect yourself. The habit of 
thinking of ourselves as sublime, or having a lofty 
conception of our possibilities, of imagining our- 
selves as being commanded by the Almighty to do 
a great work on this earth, of thinking of ourselves 
as not only human but divine, gods in the making, 
because we are a product of Divinity, will help us 
wonderfully to grasp the higher meaning of life 
and do the thing worth while. If you have such 
a conception of yourself, you are not likely to 
grovel in mediocrity or in vicious practises. A 
and an upreaching, onreaching 
possible character protectors. 











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